Necho II
Dug a canal linking the Nile and the Red Sea and sent a fleet to sail around Africa.
Life
Saite revival
Necho II belonged to the 26th Dynasty of Sais. When he came to the throne, Egypt had just freed itself from Assyrian and Kushite interference and revived, and it was trying to maintain its influence in Syria-Palestine against the rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
Wars and Canal
He sent troops to support the remnants of Assyria against the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and on the way defeated and killed King Josiah of Judah at Megiddo, but in 605 BCE he was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar II at Carchemish and forced to withdraw to Egypt. He also ordered the digging of a canal linking the Nile and the Red Sea, and according to Herodotus sent a Phoenician fleet to attempt to sail around Africa.
Circumnavigation of Africa
Herodotus records that the Phoenician fleet took three years to round the southern tip of Africa and return to Egypt, and his detail that the sun appeared in the north during the voyage agrees with modern astronomy, which many scholars regard as circumstantial evidence that the voyage really took place. However, because there are no Egyptian sources to corroborate it, the route and authenticity of the voyage remain disputed.
Legacy
Necho II was an ambitious pharaoh who tried to restore Egyptian influence in Western Asia, but his defeat at Carchemish cost Egypt control of Syria-Palestine. According to Herodotus, the canal he began digging was abandoned midway after an oracle's warning and later completed by Darius I of Persia. If the circumnavigation of Africa he sponsored really took place, it would have preceded the Portuguese rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by more than two thousand years.
Major works & achievements
- Defeated and killed King Josiah of Judah at Megiddo
- Dug the Nile–Red Sea canal
- Sent a Phoenician fleet to circumnavigate Africa (according to Herodotus)
- Built a fleet of triremes
Did you know? Herodotus claims that 120,000 Egyptians died digging the canal, a figure that is very likely exaggerated.
Key dates
- 610 BCEBecame pharaoh
- 609 BCEDefeated and killed Josiah at the Battle of Megiddo
- 605 BCEDefeated by Babylon at Carchemish
- 600 BCESent a Phoenician fleet on a voyage around Africa
- 597 BCEDug a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea
- 595 BCEDied