Who Were the Phoenicians? Part IX – How Far Away from the Mediterranean Did the Phoenicians Sail?

Before we start attributing far-flung sailing capability of the Phoenician sailors in B.C. times, let us consider the land nearby that is out of sight of land. The furthest out would be the Azores archipelago (about 930 miles west of Lisbon), and considered to be the furthest extent of the modern world. In 1446 the Portuguese took possession of the Azores, the most western points of the Old World.

930 miles is a short distance off the coast when considering the 3000 mile width of the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere. These islands were discovered in 1351 and officially made part of Portugal in 1446. Prior to the 14th century, they were unknown to any mariner, do not show up in any ancient writings, drawings, maps or logs of ships, explorers, or map makers. Had the Phoenicians sailed out from the Mediterranean out into the Atlantic, they could not have missed these islands, yet no mention of them shows up in any Phoenician record or history.

Further, the Canary Islands, just off the northwest coast of Africa and the stopping off point of Columbus’ westward voyage where the winds and currents curve outward toward the Western Hemisphere, were not discovered until 1330. Sixty-two miles west of Morocco, these islands were the first island to be discovered away from the sight of land.

São Miguel Island, part of the Azores archipelago, and the largest island of the group, was discovered in 1427 (some say between 1426 and 1437). The island was populated under the Carta Régia in the middle of that century.

Santa Maria Island, another island of the Azores group is located in the eastern part of the archipelago, south of São Miguel, and the southernmost of the islands. It is the first of those islands in the Atlantic (other than legends of Atlantis) that came from the voyages of Portuguese sailors beginning around 1279 through 1357. It was officially discovered in 1427, then called Ilha dosLobos or Ilha do Ovo.

Formigas islet (meaning ants) and Dollabarat Reef, sometimes called the Formigas Bank, in the eastern group of the Azores. This Bank was discovered in 1431, but not officially recorded until 1439.

Terceira Island (Ilha Lilas, meaning Violet or Lilac Island), one of the larger islands of the Azores, was discovered around 1325 when charts of the area began showing the island. Most historians list it as discovered sometime between 1351 and 1439.

Ilhas Afortunadas" (the Fortunate Isles), are considered that of Greek and Celtic mythology, along with the "Ilhas Azuis" (the Blue Islands), the "Ilhas Cassiterides" (the islands of Tin and Silver) or "Ilhas de Sete Cidades" (the islands of the Seven Cities), all noting the knowledge of undiscovered lands in the middle of the Atlantic claimed to be known to Prester John in the 11th century. Claimed to be a few days sail west of Spain, others said they were 1250 miles west of Africa. Ptolemy considered them west of the Straits of Hercules (Gibraltar) and modern geographers refer to them today as Macaronesia, which consists of five archipelagos—Azores, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Madeira (including Desertas Islands), and the Savage Islands.

By the latter half of the 15th century, moving step by step, Portuguese sailors advanced southward, and became familiar with the African coast. Bold navigators were eager to find the East, and at last success came. Under the king's orders, in August, 1477, three caravels sailed from the Tagus, under Bartolomeo Diaz, for southern discovery. Diaz was himself brave enough to be willing to go on to the Red Sea, after he made the great discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, but his crews mutinied, after he had gone much farther than his predecessors, and compelled him to return. He passed the southern cape of Africa and went forty miles farther. He called it the Cape of Torments, "Cabo Tormentoso," so terrible were the storms he met there. But when King John heard his report he gave it that name of good omen which it has borne ever since, the name of the "Cape of Good Hope."

The yellow area of the map shows where no record of any sailing vessels, mariners, or explorers ventured until after 1100 A.D.

The point of all this is simply that if Phoenician sailors had actually sailed out into the Atlantic as claimed by some scholars and most Mesoamerican theorists, surely they would have discovered some of these islands off the European and African coasts. But not a single word in history, in Phoenician records, or in any journals or logs mention anything about any of these islands which, as shown above, remained undiscovered until around the 12th to 14th centuries.