About 11,000 years ago (9500 B. C.) our planet was hit by a huge cataclysm when a good part of the Andes Cordillera was raised. The big lake where today the Sahara desert is dried out, the limits of the Mediterranean sea were altered, and the very large continent- island that existed in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, known as Atlantis, sank. The causes of the catastrophe are not completely known yet but it is believed that one of its probable causes was the arrival of a huge mass of a celestial body that might have passed near Earth provoking tremendous tensions in the internal magma of the planet. Those real magma tides have submitted the thin solid crust of the planet into stronger pressures than it could support. In many points the soil became distended and in others it wrinkled. There were furthermore sinking and rises in some other parts of soil. Atlantis was the main victim of those cataclysms that caused the fall of its powerful civilization. It is enough to say that various ancient texts state that after the continent- islands sinking, its survivors went on to Africa. Plato tells us about the fights that they had with the Egyptians and Greeks and how they finally were defeated. However, they left indelible marks on the ancient peoples culture such as in the Phoenician civilization that was their successor in the sea trade. The Phoenicians inhabited the Mediterranean coasts, the narrow and fertile strip located between the sea and the mountains of Lebanon and Anti- Lebanon. Their small territory, the presence of powerful neighbours and the existence of much cedar wood (quite good for naval construction) in the mountain forests may have been the additional elements that guided the Phoenician civilization towards the exploration of the seas. They built numerous and powerful fleets. They also visited the north African coasts and all the European south, traded in Italy, entered the Black Sea and left the Mediterranean Sea by crossing the Pillars of Hercules (todays Strait of Gibraltar and previously called the Pillars of Melqart) reaching the Atlantic oceans African coast, and finally arrived at the Tin Islands in England. Always trading, the Phoenicians built marts and warehouses along their routes. When they could, they stole a little but always trying not to provoke powerful enemies who they preferred to weaken with gold products, instead of doing it by the sword or by fighting. The Phoenician agents and diplomats were familiar with almost every war fought at that time and they used to take advantage of it. They navigated the African continental coast in order to follow the opposite way that would be traced by Vasco da Gama much later. And more evidence seems to confirm that the Phoenicians used to cross the Atlantic Ocean to visit the New Continent. The Phoenicians navigated by using the technique of stars orientation, the sea flows and through the winds courses. So, by following those factors their captains covered huge distances with precision. They were already influential about the year 2000 BC but their power grew with Abibaals (in 1020 BC) and Hirams leadership. Byblos, Sidon and Tyre were successive capitals of a state- city trading empire, united before anything else by ties of interest, habits and religion instead of a more rigid political structure. Read more: Phoenicia, Phoenicians in Brazil phoenicia.org/brazil.html#ixzz2vPHrdsAv
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 20:56:10 +0000
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