Africa (Libya), exploration
Africa (Libya), explorationAfrica was distinguished from Asia as the third continent by c.500 BC, with the Nile, later usually the Red Sea, as divider; but its interior and, even at the most extended period of knowledge, its coasts south of Cape Delgado on the east and Cape Yubi on the west, remained substantially unknown, locations of marvels and geographical features uncertainly identifiable (Ptolemaeus mathematicus Geographia 4). Some believed it circumnavigable (Herodotus 4. 42) and triangular in shape (Strabo 17. 3. 1), but no circumnavigation is satisfactorily attested, and there are modern scholars who think it impracticable for ancient ships; pure theorizing could account for the traditions. An inconsistent belief in a land bridge from Africa to Asia in fact prevailed (Ptolemaeus mathematicus 7. 3. 6).
In Egypt, and to some extent in Cyrenaica, Greeks could supplement autopsy with local information, cf. Herodotus on the Nile...
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