Let’s have a look at wind forces and directions and how to use them for sailing a ship. Wind force. Sailing was (and still is) considered comfortable with winds of Beaufort force 3-4 (up to 15 knots), it becomes quite ‘sportive’ with force 5-6 Bft and critical above force 7 Bft (over 30 knots). According […]
Search: “ 1 2 3 ”
We found 93 results for your search.
The oldest maps found so far are regional maps:
If you are not an expert historian, this brief historical overview of the “western world” may help you to start … Some additional definitions, in round figures (for the Near East): Many Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic sites have been identified in coastal areas, but they did not have any port structures[0]. A few examples are […]
Location: 33.271N 35.194E This page was prepared by Arthur de Graauw, Gilles Brocard, and Jean-Philippe Goiran. It features breaking news on the harbour history of Tyre, in particular the southern harbour, known as the “Egyptian Harbour”. Introduction The renowned Phoenician city of Tyre (Lebanon) is one of the finest examples of major changes triggered by […]
As several very good reviews of ancient lighthouses and navigational aids have been provided in the past, our aim is not to add another review here, but just to supply a few pictures made by the author[1] Except for Alexandria and Rome, lighthouses and beacons are rarely mentioned in ancient literature. The possibly earliest mention […]
Location: 42.095N 11.788E The port of Centumcellae was built by order of Trajan by the famous architect Apollodorus of Damascus in the years 105-110 AD. The construction of one of the breakwaters was witnessed by Pliny the Younger (Letters, 6, 31) who provided us one of the very few descriptions of the construction of a […]
What are we talking about? Before entering the subject of subsidence, we must distinguish it from breakwater destruction by wave action. The latter yields spreading of materials on the sea floor resulting in a complete destruction of the breakwater superstructure which can then barely be recognised as such under water. This is not (or less) […]
Location: 32.503N 34.890E Caesarea Maritima, or Sebastos in Greek, features one of the most extensive ancient port ruins still visible today. It was built by King Herod between 22 and 10 BC, more than half a century before Rome’s Portus, but later than Agrippa’s naval base of Portus Iulius, near Pozzuoli, in 37 BC. It features […]
Location: 36.84°N 10.33°E Cicero (Agraria, Rullus, 2) wrote “Carthago succincta portibus” (Carthage surrounded by ports), which denotes a fairly complicated configuration (Ennabli, 2020, see also Wikipedia). Moreover, we are dealing with 1500 years of evolution (from ca. 800 BC to ca. 700 AD), mostly under the present soil and water levels … Our aim is […]
Location: 31°N 31°E Our aim in this short study is to put some order into the various ancient branches and outlets of the Nile … An almost impossible task as archaeology can help finding the location of ancient water courses and even dating them, but it will usually not provide their names (with the notorious […]