The ancient Phoenicians were a great civilisation that inhabited the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Phoenician civilisation lasted over 1, 000 years. It began about 1550 BC and ended about 300 BC. The Phoenicians were the best shipbuilders and sailors of the ancient world. For more than 400 years, they ruled the seas! They were the first people to learn how to sail using the stars at night. The Phoenicians were brilliant traders too. They sailed their ships around the Mediterranean, and sold things like wood and glass to the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians. One special item that they traded made them very rich. It was a purple-coloured dye. Purple was the colour of royalty in ancient times. No one in the ancient world knew how to make purple clothes except the Phoenicians. Historians think the Phoenicians were the first civilisation in the world to use an alphabet. They also think that all the alphabets in the world today come from the Phoenician alphabet. The Phoenicians invented an alphabet and a writing system around 1400 BC because they wanted to communicate with their trading partners in Greece, Rome and Egypt. It consisted of only 22 letters based on sound. Once the Greeks and Romans saw the Phoenicians had an alphabet, they learnt it. They wanted to make sure the Phoenicians didn’t cheat them out of money! Soon afterwards the Greeks developed their own alphabet. That consisted of 24 letters. The Roman alphabet evolved from the Greek alphabet in the 7th century BC. Read again and complete the sentences. 1 The Phoenician civilisation lived on . 2 The Phoenicians used to work as . 3 They sailed around the Mediterranean selling . 4 The first alphabet was the . 5 The Phoenicians needed the alphabet so that . 6 The Greek alphabet was a model for .