------Libya shows itself to be surrounded by water, except
so much of it as borders upon Asia. Neco, king of Egypt, was
the first we know of, that proved this; he, when he had ceased
digging the canal leading from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf,
sent certain Phoenicians in ships, with orders to sail back
through the Pillars of Hercules, into the Northern Sea, and so
return to Egypt. The Phoenicians accordingly, setting out
from the Red Sea, navigated the Southern Sea; when autumn
came, they went ashore and sowed the land, by whatever part
of Libya they happened to be sailing, and waited for the
harvest; and having reaped the corn, they put to sea again.
When two years had thus passed, in the third, having doubled
the Pillars of Hercules, they arrived in Egypt, and related what
to me does not seem credible, but may to others, that as they
sailed round Libya, they had the sun on their right hand.
Thus was Libya first known.—
Herodotus: Melpomene, 42.
