The level of the art of naval construction, as may be seen in the magnificent solar boat of Cheops, leaves little room for doubt that men had the aptitude for maritime navigation as early as 4,500 years ago. Built with Lebanese cedar wood planks, hand sewn together, this perfectly preserved boat, 43 metres long and with a displacement of 45 tonnes, denotes a remarkable mastery of naval architecture and construction from such an early era. And how can one imagine that such a degree of perfection was other than the culmination of preceding centuries of experimentation?

Maritime navigation has thus been practised since time immemorial and has long been known and written about. But the main routes of communication by sea, used for millennia, are those known as coastal routes, along which navigators sailed hugging the shores, never moving too far away from them.

More often than not, this involved inshore navigation, sailing short distances within visual range from port to port. Thus for an entire millennium the Phoenician Semites of Canaan sailed from the Mediterranean region; they set off from Tyre towards Sidon and Byblos, or towards Egyptian ports and Carthage, covering 50 to 100 kilometres per day.