PHYSICAL CONTEMPLATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 499 



course with the northern tin and amber lands, as well as in 

 their settlements near the tropics, on the west coast of Africa. 

 It now, therefore, only remains for us to refer to a voyage of 

 the Phoenicians to the south, when they proceeded 4000 

 geographical miles east of Cerne and Hanno's Western 

 Horn, far within the tropics, to the Prasodic and Indian Seas. 

 Whatever doubt may exist regarding the localisation of the 

 distant gold lands (Ophir and Supara), and whether these gold 

 lands are the western coasts of the Indian peninsula, or the 

 eastern shores of Africa, it is, at any rate, certain that this 

 active, enterprising Semitic race, who so early employed 

 alphabetical writing, had a direct acquaintance with the pro- 

 ducts of the most different climates, from the Cassiterides to 

 the south of the Straits of Bab-el- Mandeb, far within the 

 tropics. The Tyrian flag floated simultaneously in the British 

 and Indian seas. The Phoenicians had commercial settlements 

 in the northern parts of the Arabian Gulf, in the ports of 

 Elath and Ezioii Geber, as well as on the Persian Gulf at 

 Aradus and Tylos, where, according to Strabo, temples had 

 been erected, which, in their style of architecture, resembled 

 those on the Mediterranean.* The caravan trade, which was 

 carried on by the Pho3nicians in seeking spices and incense, 

 was directed to Arabia Felix, through Palmyra, and to the 

 Chaldean or Nabathaeic Gerrha, on the western or Arabian 

 side of the Persian Gulf. 



The expeditions sent by Hiram and Solomon, and which 

 were undertaken conjointly by Tynans and Israelites, sailed 

 from Ezion Geber through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to 

 Ophir (Opheir, Sophir, Sophora, the Sanscrit Supara of 

 Ptolemy ).f Solomon, [who loved pomp, caused a fleet to be 



* Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 767, Casaub. According to Polybius, it would 

 Beem that the Euxine and the Adriatic Sea were discernible from 

 Mount Aimon an assertion ridiculed by Strabo (lib. vii. p. 313). 

 Compare Scymnus, p. 93. 



-| On the synonym of Ophir, see my Examen crit. de VHist. de la 

 Geographic, t. ii. p. 42. Ptolemy, in lib. vi. cap. 7, p. 156, speaks of a 

 Sapphara, the metropolis of Arabia; and in lib. vii. cap. 1, p. 168, of 

 Supara, in the Gulf of Camboya (Barigazenus sinus, according to Heiy- 

 chius),as " a district rich in gold !" Supara signifies in Indian a fair shore 

 (Lassen, J)iss. de Taprobane, p. 18, and Indische Alterihumskunde, 

 bd. i. s. 107; also Professor Keil of Lorpat, Ueber die 

 monische Schiffahrt nach Ophir und Tarsis, a. 40-45). 

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