The Arabian Sea^ as Seen by the Ancients 



This map displays most of the world known to the Minoans, ancient 

 Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, and may be employed to view this world 

 from the angle of those four peoples. To a certain extent it also shows 

 the outlook of the Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Phoenicians, 

 and by turning it upside down you may see half the world as viewed by 

 the ancient Dravidian Indian navigators. The essential feature, from the 

 point of view of the eastern Mediterranean civiHzations, is that India 

 was straight ahead, with Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia on the right, and 

 Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Persia on the left. Further, Libya (or Africa) 

 bounded the world on the right and Cathay (Asia) on the left. 



The route to India was neither difficult nor adventurous to the 

 Romans, apart from the fact that they were inland seamen and bad 

 sailors. It simply followed an ancient sea route laid out over three thou- 

 sand years before by Dravidians and Sabeans, and later by Phoenicians 

 and Greeks. Advantageous winds carried the creaky, overstuffed ships 

 down the Red Sea, and then straight across the Arabian Sea to India, 

 provided one sailed at the right time of year. The return was accom- 

 plished just as easily by taking advantage of the Monsoons blowing the 

 other way. Looked at this way, these Monsoons blow straight from right 

 to left, or vice versa, across the course. 



Whales of several kinds are very common in the seas depicted, and the 

 classical voyagers could not have failed to see them. Industries founded 

 upon them, apart from the Phoenician sperming in the eastern Medi- 

 terranean, were concentrated around the Arabian Sea. 



