Ancient Navigators Series
Scylax of Caryanda, was born in Anatolia, in the region of Caria around the end of th 6th century BC. He was Greek, and served Darius, King of Persia. He explored the eastern regions of that realm, reaching India. He wrote books on geography and fragments of his work have survived.
In his Pseudo-Skylax's Periplous: The Circumnavigation of the Inhabited World (see pt. 112 Online) he mentions the Atlantic beyond the Island of Cerne: "Beyond Kerne it is no longer navigable because of shallow seas and clay and seaweed. The seaweed is a hand's width and sharp above, so it pricks."
These weeds are surely the Sargasso weeds, and the shallow seas, the Sargasso Sea mentioned in a previous post.
We don't know where Cerne is located. Hannon mentioned it in his navigation (fifth century BC) along the coast of Africa, it was south of the Lixus River (Morocco), most scholars place it on the coast of Western Sahara somewhere between Nouadhibou and El Mamghar. For the original text see p. 27 in his Periplus, transcribed below:
"Taking interpreters from among them, we sailed along the desert, towards the south, for two days, and thence again to the east a day’s course. There we found, in the recess of a gulf, a small island, having a circumference of five stadia, which we colonised, and named Kerné, from my daughter Kerné, who was the first to land from the fifty-oared galley. And we calculated from the voyage that the island lay in a straight line with Karchédon, for the distance from Karchédon to the Pillars, and thence to Kerné, seemed the same."
He reckoned that the distance between Carthage (Karcheédon) and Gibraltar (The Pillars) was the same as the distance from Kern&ecute; to Gibraltar. This coast along the western Sahara desert is a dry, barren, with no trees, plants or rivers. Why would they set up a base there? The size of the island is also given: five stadia is roughly 800 m, or half a mile. The island was small. In my opinion Hanno probably reached Dakar in Senegal and landed on Goree Island (see map), the right size, the right location, with resources, a secluded port, water, trees.
If Cerne was Goree, then these ancient navigators could have been swept along the route taken by Cabral and his fleet in 1500 which would convey their ships to Brazil.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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