Ancient Egypt: Voyages of exploration - voyages to Punt by Henenu and under Hatshepsut, the circumnavigation of Africa under Necho

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Queen of Punt
Tomb of Hatshepsut
(Art History Resources, Duke University)

Voyages of Exploration

Henenu

The Egyptians undertook major journeys from very early times. The oldest record of a journey to Punt is on the Palermo stone, dated to the 5th dynasty [1]. During the 11th Dynasty, Henenu with three thousand men transported the materials for building ships through Wadi Hammamat to the coast of the Red Sea.

I went forth from Coptos upon the road, which his majesty commanded me. There was with me an army of the South from //// of the Oxyrhyncus nome, the beginning thereof as far as Gebelen; the end thereof as far as [////], every office of the king's house, those who were in town and field, united, came after me. The army [////] cleared the way before, overthrowing those hostile toward the king, the hunters and the children of the highlands were posted as the protection of my limbs.

The Red Land they had to cross was desert and the provisioning of such a large army difficult. This was exacerbated by the fact that camels were unavailable until Persian times and donkeys had to be used.

I gave a leathern bottle, a carrying pole, 2 jars of water and 20 loaves to each one among them every day. The asses were laden with sandals ..... Now, I made 12 wells in the bush, and two wells in Idehet, 20 square cubits in one, and 31 [square] cubits in the other. I made another in Iheteb, 20 by 20 cubits on each side

On reaching the Great Green they assembled the ship and after sacrificing wild bulls, African oxen and small livestock, they sailed south along the Arabian peninsula.

I executed the command of his majesty, and I brought for him all the gifts, which I had found in the region of God's Land.
Henenu's Hammamat inscription, Reign of Mentuhotep III

He returned to Qoseir and continued to the Valley of Rohanu, where he collected rocks for statues [2].
This expedition, like similar ones in the time of Pepi I (ca. 2300 BCE), had both economic and political aims: the desert tribes along the Arabian coast were traditionally opposed to the maritime activities of the Egyptians and interfered with their trade with Punt, defending the monopoly they enjoyed much of the time.

The journeys to Punt under Hatshepsut

In the summer of the eighth year of her reign, Queen Hatshepsut (1498-1483 BCE) sent Senenmet with a fleet of five ships with thirty rowers each from Qoseir, on the Red Sea, to the Land of Punt, called "God's Land", which was probably in the Horn of Africa.
It was primarily a trading expedition busy with buying myrrh and myrrh saplings, frankincense and fragrant unguents used for cosmetics and in religious ceremonies, but some animals and plants of no economic importance were also collected, brought back to Egypt and realistically depicted on Hatshepsut's temple walls at Deir el-Bahri, near Luxor in the Valley of the Kings.

... loading of the ships very heavily with marvels of the country of Punt; all goodly fragrant woods of God's-Land [the East], heaps of myrrh resin, with fresh myrrh trees, with ebony and pure ivory, with green gold of Emu, with cinnamon wood, khesyt wood, with two kinds of incense, eye-cosmetic, with apes, monkeys, dogs, and with skins of the southern panther, with natives and their children. Never was brought the like of this for any king who has been since the beginning
Breasted, A History of the Early World

The incense-trees were planted before the temple at Deir el-Bahri and their roots can still be seen.

The circumnavigation of Africa

The Mediterranean in the 7th century BCE

While the reason for Hatshepsut's voyage had mainly been economical - an attempt to corner the lucrative frankincense and myrrh trade, none is given by Herodotus for the expedition sent by Necho with the aim of sailing around Africa. But considering the control of the northern shores of the Mediterranean by the Greeks and of the southern coasts by the Phoenicians, the only region where Egypt, with its inferior fleet, might acquire some influence and wealth would have been eastern Africa. A canal through Wadi Tumilat and the Bitter Lakes would give Egypt control over the trade in frankincense, myrrh, ivory and other African and Arabian commodities by undercutting the overland caravans, even if the trade itself were conducted by Greeks and Phoenicians.

Libya (Africa) clearly is bounded by the sea, except where it borders on Asia. Nekhau king of Egypt first discovered this and made it known. When he had abandoned the digging of the canal which leads from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf, he sent Phoenicians in ships, with orders to sail on their return voyage past the Pillars of Heracles (the straits of Gibraltar) until they came into the northern sea (the Mediterranean) and so to Egypt.
Herodotus, Histories 4.42

Whether the circumnavigation of Africa was the result of the failure to complete the Tumilat canal - a search for an alternative route to east Africa, or an attempt to explore other possibilities the African continent might offer, one cannot be sure. Herodotus himself doubted the veracity of at least part of the account

Thus the Phoenicians set out from the Red Sea and sailed the southern sea (the Indian Ocean); whenever autumn came they would put in and plant the land in whatever part of Libya they had reached, and there await the harvest; then, having gathered the crop, they sailed on, so that after two years had passed, it was in the third that they rounded the pillars of Heracles and came to Egypt. There, they said - some believe it, but I do not - that in sailing around Libya they had the sun on their right hand.
Herodotus, Histories 4.42

Sailing around Africa was certainly possible; Phoenician ships of the period were ocean worthy, they had sailed through the straits of Gibraltar and down the African coast. No navigational aids were needed as long as the expedition kept in sight of the coast. The fact that the sun was reported to have changed its position is good evidence that it did happen. This and the disappearance of the familiar stellar constellations must have left a deep impression on the sailors' minds.

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	These are just suggestions for further reading. I do not assume any responsibility for the availability or content of these websites.

		Queen Hatshepsut's expedition to the Land of Punt: The first oceanographic cruise?
		[1] Punt and Ta-Netjer by Jacques Kinnaer
		[2] Mentuhotep III , contains the account of Henenu expedition to Punt
		¿Dónde está el misterioso Punt?
	Feedback: Please report broken links, mistakes - factual or otherwise, etc. to me. Thanks.