Limeys

Explorers of the ancient world would often go surprisingly far. One of my favorite examples of this is from the Phoenicians, who traveled from what is now Lebanon, Syria, and northern Israel in order to reach the British Isles some 2400 years ago.

Then, there’s the Egyptian Pharoah Necho II, who commissioned a group of Phoenician explorers to circumnavigate the continent of Africa. These navigators were the best in the world at the time as far as we know today, and it’s fair to say that they really got around. This account was written down by the Greek historian Herodotus, and while its accuracy is debated among scholars, there’s no doubt that these elite explorers were fully capable of traveling vast distances.

The Greeks, too, had their share of ancient navigators. There was Eudoxus of Cyzicus, a Greek navigator who sailed from Egypt to India, going all the way around the big subcontinent and opening up all sorts of new trade routes. Pytheas of Massalia sailed from modern-day Marseill…