Ten Alps joins Phoenician ship expedition

11th February 2008

Ten Alps has been appointed to help the media campaign for the Phoenician Ship Expedition - an ambitious project which will see a replica Phoenician ship recreate the first circumnavigation of Ancient Africa later this year.

The 50 foot ship is being built at the Syrian port of Arwad and is due to set sail this summer, heading through the Suez Canal, around the Horn of Africa and down the east coast to the Cape of Good Hope. The Phoenicia will then sail up the west coast of Africa, across the Mediterranean and back to Syria – a voyage of thousands of miles and months at sea with a multi national crew of 20 and a single square rigged sail.

A further voyage from Syria to the UK is planned to coincide with a major exhibition on the Phoenicians at the British Museum in summer 2009.

The Expedition’s the brainchild of Philip Beale who led the 2003-4 Borobodur expedition in a replica Indonesian trading vessel sailing from Indonesia to West Africa.

The Phoenicia is being built using evidence from shipwrecks and archaeological finds in consultation with leading historians and shipwrights to ensure the replica is as faithful as possible to the original ship that it’s believed made this same voyage 3000 years ago.

Jo Phillips, Ten Alps’s Director of Communications said, “ We are thrilled to be part of this ambitious and exciting project. It is truly of global interest and we hope it will excite not just historians and sailors, but school children from the UK, the Middle East and Africa as the voyage gets underway, bringing history to life.”

A call for crew is to be launched shortly. For further information go to www.phoenicia.org.uk