Periplus
A periplus in the ancient navigation of Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans is a manuscript document that
lists in order the ports and coastal landmarks, with approximate distances between, that the captain of a vessel could expect to
find along a shore. Several examples of a periplus have survived.
The Periplus of Hanno the Navigator, (q.v.)
a 6th century BCE Carthaginian colonist and explorer, described the coast of Africa from
present-day Morocco deep into the Gulf of Guinea.
The Periplus of the Erythraean
Sea (q.v.) was written by a Romanized Alexandrian in the
1st century CE. It gives the shoreline itinerary of the Red (Erythraean) Sea, starting each time at the port of Berenice. Beyond the Red Sea, the manuscript describes the coast of
India as far as the Ganges River
and the east coast of Africa (called Azania).
-This article has been brought to you by BambooWeb and Wikipedia-
