Phoenicians

The Phoenicians were the greatest traders and seafarers of the ancient world. Their cities of Tyre and Sidon became centres of a vast trade network. They also set up colonies around the Mediterranean Sea. One was Carthage, which became a great power and Rome’s rival.

The Phoenicians lived along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean (in what is now part of Syria, Lebanon and Isreal). In large ships made of cedar wood, they ventured as far west as Britain and down the Africa coast. Phoenician potters, ivory carvers, metal workers and carpenters made goods for everyday use and for export. Goods traded included glassware, timber, cedar oil and ivory. But their most famous export was a purple-red dye made from a kind of shellfish. They were such expert navigators that, about 600 BC, the Egyptian king Necho II hired Phoenician sailors to sail around Africa. The expedition is said to have taken three years.