Hanno's periplus of the African Atlantic coast
Periplo de Hannón por la costa atlántica de África
- Date
- c. 500 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Carthage, Tunisia (departure of the expedition)
- Credited to
- Hanno of Carthage
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A Greek account of a voyage by the Carthaginian Hanno with some 60 ships to found colonies in Morocco and explore the African Atlantic coast southward. It describes volcanoes, rivers with hippopotamuses and a tribe of 'hairy people'.
Only a Greek version survives (Periplus of Hanno), with disputed authenticity and date; the geographical reach of the voyage is much debated. The coordinates are those of Carthage, where it set out.
What it led to
- ancient knowledge of the African Atlantic coast, passed on to Pliny and Ptolemy
- Punic colonisation of Morocco (Thymiaterion, Cerne)
- controversy over the southern limit of the voyage (Senegal, Sierra Leone or Cameroon)