Besides sharing with the Phoenicians in the trade of the Mediterranean,[9115] he constructed with their help a fleet at Ezion-Geber upon the Red Sea,[9116] and the two allies conjointly made voyages to the region, or country, called Ophir, for the purpose of procuring precious stones, gold, and almug-wood.[9117] Ophir is, properly speaking, a portion of Arabia,[9118] and Arabia was famous for its production of gold,[9119] and also for its precious stones.[9120] Whether it likewise produced almug-trees is doubtful;[9121] and it is quite possible that the joint fleet went further than Ophir proper, and obtained the "almug-wood" from the east coast of Africa, or from India.
The Somauli country might have been as easily reached as South-eastern Arabia, and if India is considerably more remote, yet there was nothing to prevent the Phoenicians from finding their way to it.[9122] We have, however, no direct evidence that their commerce in the Indian Ocean ever took them further than the Arabian coast, about E.Long.

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