- Title: SYRIA: Replica of Phoenician ship sets sail for a year-long voyage around Africa
- Date: 11th August 2008
- Summary: VARIOUS OF ASMAA AL-ASSAD BOARDING SHIP CROWDS WATCHING THE SHIP AS IT LEAVES THE PORT VARIOUS OF ASMAA AL-ASSAD WAVING TO PEOPLE
- Embargoed: 26th August 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Lifestyle
- Reuters ID: LVA14I3PZJ65JL2XCRVUKJZQT4HF
- Story Text: A Phoenician ship, built in the Syrian island of Arwad, set sail on Sunday (August 10) for a year-long expedition around the African continent.
Syrian First Lady Asmaa al-Assad attended a ceremony to mark the event in Arwad Island's port, where Phoenician ships used to be built in ancient times, and where a replica has been built by local shipwrights over the past few months, using traditional Phoenician construction methods and materials.
The ship embarked on journey retracing a path believed to be taken by maritime traders around the African continent over two thousand years ago.
The "Phoenicia" is expected to spend about a year at sea and cover a distance of 17,000 miles (27,358 kilometres).
British adventurer Philip Beale will be leading the multi-national expedition through the Suez canal, down the east African Cape of Good Hope until the southern tip of the continent, then upwards back to the Mediterranean sea.
"Some people will be joining us later in the expedition but other people are doing like the whole one year expedition and every four hours we will change the watch system so everybody gets to do everything in the crew," Beale said.
Twenty crew members were aboard the fifty foot (15.24 metres) vessel when it sailed off for the maritime adventure.
The voyage will be based on wind movements, as the ship has no engine and is to sail in the same traditional method as during the Phoenician period.
Modern day Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories were the heartland of Phoenician civilisation from 1550 BC to 300 BC, whose famous city-state ports of Arka, Arwad, Berut (Beirut), Botrys (Batroun), Gebal (Byblos), Safita and Sarepta (Sarafand) served as their launchpads to world exploration.
Other colonies would soon dot the Mediterranean basin, located in what are now Algeria, Cyprus, Italy, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Tunisia and Turkey.
The voyage will help revive aspects of the Phoenician civilization and will bear a message of peace to the world, said Hanan Kassab Hassan, Secretary General of the Committee in charge of events celebrating Damascus as the Arab Cultural Capital for 2008.
"The re-building of the ship and its re-launching into the world will have an important cultural impact because the Phoenicians carried civilization and peace to the world," Hanan Kassab Hassan said.
Supported by the Royal Geographical Society, the British Museum and a host of independent international archaeologists and explorers, the "Phoenicia" will recreate what is believed to have been the first circumnavigation of Africa by Phoenician sailors in 600 BC.
Another voyage is scheduled from the summer of 2009, to bring the "Phoenicia" to the United Kingdom, where it will be displayed at the British Museum.
In their time, the Phoenicians were regarded as the "rulers of the sea," and their trading activities extended as far West as Cornwall in modern-day Britain for tin, and eastwards to India and China for spices and precious goods. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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