Histories

So much for the parts of Asia (continent)Asia west of the Persians. But what is beyond the Persians, and Medes, and Saspires, and Colchians, east and toward the rising sun, this is bounded on the one hand by the +Red Sea [42,15] (sea) Red Sea, and to the north by the +Caspian Sea [51,39] (sea) Caspian Sea and the Araxes river, which flows toward the sun's rising.

As far as +India [77,20] (nation), Asia India, Asia (continent)Asia is an inhabited land; but thereafter, all to the east is desolation, nor can anyone say what kind of land is there.

Such is Asia (continent)Asia, and such its extent. But Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya is on this second peninsula; for Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya comes next after Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt. The Egyptian part of this peninsula is narrow; for from our sea to the +Red Sea [42,15] (sea) Red Sea it is a distance of a hundred and twenty-five miles; that is, a thousand stades; but after this narrow part, the peninsula which is called Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya is very broad.

I wonder, then, at those who have mapped out and divided the world into Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya, Asia (continent)Asia, and Europe (continent)Europe; for the difference between them is great, seeing that in length Europe (continent)Europe stretches along both the others together, and it appears to me to be wider beyond all comparison.

For Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya shows clearly that it is bounded by the sea, except where it borders on Asia (continent)Asia. Necos king of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt first discovered this and made it known. When he had finished digging the canal which leads from the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), AfricaNile to the Persian Gulf [53.83,25.583] (gulf), AsiaArabian Gulf, he sent Phoenicians in ships, instructing them to sail on their return voyage past the Pillars of Heracles until they came into the northern sea and so to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt.

So the Phoenicians set out from the +Red Sea [42,15] (sea) Red Sea and sailed the southern sea; whenever autumn came they would put in and plant the land in whatever part of Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya they had reached, and there await the harvest;

then, having gathered the crop, they sailed on, so that after two years had passed, it was in the third that they rounded the pillars of Heracles and came to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt. There they said (what some may believe, though I do not) that in sailing around Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya they had the sun on their right hand.[*](The detail which Herodotus does not believe incidentally confirms the story; as the ship sailed west round the Cape of +Good Hope (deserted settlement), Rio Arriba, New Mexico, United States, North and Central America Good Hope, the sun of the southern hemisphere would be on its right. Most authorities now accept the story of the circumnavigation.)