Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

"You mean, a great warrior and a navigator are buried here?" After listening to Liang En's brief introduction, King Tu asked curiously.

Although he had studied abroad for a long time in the Western world and obtained a degree, he still didn't know much about these unpopular things, so he could only ask Liang En, a professional.

But then again, not many people know such unpopular knowledge as the ancient Phoenicians, whether they are on campus in the West or in the wilderness of Africa.

"Yes, according to the epitaph, he used a spear to kill an elephant. Although he paid the price with his own life, this approach can be called a warrior." Liang En pointed to the inscription on the stone tablet. The text said.

"This is indeed a warrior." After hearing what Liang En said, the earth king and the chiefs around him all nodded seriously and praised. For them, fighting a lion alone is the limit. , the elephant can’t even think about it.

"By the way, why did you say he was a navigator before?" The earth king asked Liang En after paying tribute to the ancient warrior. "Since you said he is famous, he should have left his own record in history."

"Of course, the expedition team he was a part of did leave his name in history." Liang En said with a smile. "They were the first expedition in history to circumnavigate Africa."

According to current legends and records, Pharaoh Necho II of the 26th Dynasty of ancient Egypt ordered a voyage to the coast of Africa in order to expand overseas.

Since his accession to the throne, this pharaoh continued to implement the policy of developing trade of his father Psammetik I. With his support, Phoenician sailors completed the first voyage around Africa.

The background to this voyage was that Egypt completed the Nile-Red Sea canal under the pharaoh's auspices, but later abandoned it due to concerns about possible changes in water levels and enemy invasion.

There is no subsequent historical record of why Nico II decided to send a fleet of ships on a voyage across Africa, but what is certain is that he sent the fleet almost immediately after he abandoned the canal project.

Some people think that this is likely to be related to the situation at that time. When the threat from the East became stronger and stronger, they had to take every possible method to face this threat.

At that time, King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in eastern Egypt was waging a war that every Egyptian knew would soon spread to their own homeland.

Unfortunately, the overall situation became increasingly desperate for the Egyptians. In 609 BC, the year Necho II came to the throne, he sent troops to fight against the Jewish kingdom and killed him at the Battle of Megiddo. King Josiah of Judah.

But it was not the beginning of a series of great victories, but just the afterglow before the sunset. In 605 BC, Necho II attempted to support the dying Assyrian Empire and sent troops to Mesopotamia.

He was defeated by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon at the Battle of Carchemish and was forced to give up his territories in Syria and Palestine. Assyria finally fell.

In 601 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II repelled the invading Nebuchadnezzar II on the Egyptian border, but he only contained the enemy's attack, and the entire country was still in danger.

What's more important is that after losing the Near East, one of Egypt's two key regions, Egypt lost its biggest barrier to the eastern threat and an important source of wealth and troops. This also represented the beginning of the country's decline.

It does look a bit bad, but if compared with other countries, it is not necessarily that bad. For example, the famous Jewish Kingdom was completely destroyed in this round of attacks.

King Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom captured Jerusalem twice in 597 and 586 BC, destroying the Jewish Kingdom.

He ordered that all the Jewish nobles, priests, merchants, and craftsmen be taken as prisoners and taken to the city of Babylon in groups. Only some extremely poor people were left in Jerusalem to repair vineyards and cultivate fields.

These Jews remained in Babylon for decades until the rise of the Persian Empire. Only then did Cyrus the Great return them to Jerusalem. This was the "Babylonian Captivity" in Jewish history.

In such a dangerous period, Nico II still insisted on sailing. Such a time-consuming operation was already a very difficult task for this country.

For Necho II, who lived in a desperate era, his country was beleaguered from all sides, and everything he did was to save the country and save his subjects from the threat of the Babylonians.

That's why he joined forces with Tyre, who was also invaded by Babylon, to launch an adventure, hoping to find more resources and more markets to make up for a series of problems caused by the loss of the eastern territory.

There are very few records of their voyages after that. The only material that can be used as a reference is some descriptions made by the Greek writer Herodotus, but this scholar lived almost more than a hundred years before this voyage.

However, through these precious records, everyone can also see some important details of that voyage, such as the route of the fleet and what it experienced. .

According to records, the Phoenician fleet spent the first year in a country they knew well. They sailed along the Red Sea and passed through Punt, a country that frequently traded with Egypt, where they spent their first years.

Later, when they once again stocked up on supplies, they left Punt far behind the fleet. At this time, the fleet began to enter a world unknown to them.

Here, they may see what a whale looks like for the first time in their lives. They crossed the equator and landed in the African jungle again and again, building homes and sowing crops.

What is certain is that it was here that the crew discovered that the direction of the sun's activity in the sky was opposite to the direction they were familiar with before.

Interestingly, the recorder Herodotus did not believe this. He wrote in the article: "These returning crew members said some inexplicable things that I simply do not believe."

"While others may have believed the rumor, it is simply impossible that the sun was to the north of these men as they sailed on a westward course off the southern tip of Libya."

This was already the most enlightened idea of ​​that era, because other writers simply did not believe in the existence of this voyage, and naturally there was no record of it.

Ironically, these suspected things have become important evidence that the Phoenicians once traveled around Africa, because the sun is indeed in the northern sky in a large part of southern Africa today.

The Phoenicians were the first people besides the local indigenous people to witness this fact, and proved that they indeed conducted this voyage along the coastline around a huge continent.

Liang En now discovered that this cemetery is the cemetery of a captain of such an expedition. It can be said to have witnessed the first human journey around Africa, and it can be regarded as a very valuable historical witness.