Tourism through the Ages - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 44

CHRONOLOGIES OF TRAVEL

Herein are two chronologies of travel: (1) a chronology of ancient migrations, early explorers, and great
travelers, and (2) a chronology of travel arrangers of their business and their suppliers. The selected
travelers and explorers not only made remarkably long and arduous journeys to little-known (and
often mistaken) places, but also wrote vivid descriptions or had scribes write for them. They faced
sometimes unbelievably dif cult, often dangerous, and occasionally fatal hardships.
The comfortable and pleasant (even sometimes inspiring) traveling facilities of today are truly a
tribute to the development of modern technology, design, and engineering.

Chronology of Ancient Migrations, Early Explorers, and Great Travelers

1 million years ago Homo erectus originates in eastern and southern Africa; makes extensive migrations north to

the Middle East and to Asia.

350,000 years ago Early Homo sapiens evolves from H. erectus; dwells in Africa, Europe, and Asia.

50,000 - 30,000 years ago Anatomically modern man, H. sapiens, evolves and expands into Australia from southeastern

Asia and into northeastern Asia.

15,000 years ago Upper Paleolithic people cross into northern latitudes of the New World from northeast Asia

on a land bridge.

B . C . E .
4000

Sumerians (Mesopotamia, Babylonia) invent money, cuneiform writing, and the wheel; also,
the concept of a tour guide.

2000 - 332 Phoenicians begin maritime trading and navigating over the entire Mediterranean Sea area.

They may possibly have sailed as far as the British Isles and probably along the coast of
western Africa and to the Azores.

1501 - 1481 Queen Hatshepsut makes the journey from Egypt to the land of Punt, believed to be an area

along the eastern coast of Africa.

336 - 323 Alexander the Great leads his army from Greece into Asia, crossing the Hindu Kush

mountains (Afghanistan - Kashmir area), and to the Indus River.

C . E .
500 Polynesians from the Society Islands sail to Hawaii, a distance of over 2,000 miles.

800 - 1100 Vikings establish trade and explore Iceland, Greenland, and the coast of North America.

1271 - 1295 Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant, travels to Persia, Tibet, the Gobi Desert, Burma, Siam,

Java, Sumatra, India, Ceylon, the Siberian Arctic, and other places.

1325 - 1354 Ibn Battuwtah, the a Moroccan, makes six pilgrimages to Mecca; also

visits India, China, Spain, and Timbuktu in Africa.

'' Marco Polo of Islam, ''

1492 - 1502 Christopher Columbus explores the New World, including the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica,

Central America, and the northern coast of South America.

1497 John Cabot, an Italian navigator, sailing from Bristol, England, discovers North America at a

point now known as Nova Scotia.

1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer, discovers the Paci c Ocean.

1519 Ferdinand Magellan sails west from Spain to circumnavigate the globe. He is killed in the

Philippines, but some of his crew complete the circumnavigation.

1540 - 1541 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a Spanish explorer, seeks gold, silver, and precious jewels

(without success) in what is now Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and other areas of
the American Southwest.

1602 Bartholomew Gosnold, English explorer and colonizer, navigates the eastern coast of the

(now) United States from Maine to Narragansett Bay; discovers and names Cape Cod. In
1606, his ship carries some of the first settlers to Virginia.