Ghana – 2002 – 500 Sika – KMnew Ship Egyptian Ship Silver (PROOF)

Description

The Polaris ( the North Star) is one of the most important stars for orientation in the night without a compass. Searching the picture of the Little Dipper, at the end of the handle you will find the star ?
The North-Star was called in ancient times ?Phoenician Star? because Phoenician sailors have used the North-Star for navigation of the sailing ships.

The Phoenicians are well known as trader and explorer as early as 2000 B.C. Using sailing routes to the western Mediterranean beyond the Pillars of Hercules ( Straits of Gibraltar) to acquire new sources of raw materials and selling their own products. They founded Carthage and many other trading towns in the Mediterranean. By order of Pharaoh Necho ( 600 B.C.) Phoenician ships circumnavigated Africa.
Their homelands, the present coastline of Lebanon and Syria, with the cities Byblos, Sidon and Tyros represented the crossing of trading routes between Egypt, Assyrian / Babylonia and the Far East.

The earliest report about an Egypt ?Ship? made with Papyrus reached back to 5000 B.C. Archaeological findings are dating wood made ships back as far as 2600 B.C. (Ship of Pharaoh Cheops). The Pharaoh (queen) Hatschepsut sent explorer ships to the Land of Punt. This ship type is depicted on the walls of her tomb Dair Al Bahri near Luxor.
Egypt was not really a seafaring nation mainly caused of absence of wood. When they ruled the Phoenician homeland, they used their fleets for the needs in trading.