The Great Journeys in History

Follow in the footsteps of history's most renowned explorers as they undertake their great journeys across the world - and beyond

Marco Polo, Ferdinand Magellan, David Livingstone, Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong: these are some of the greatest travellers and pioneers of all time. The Great Journeys in History chronicles their stories and many more with specially commissioned maps, from the extraordinary migrations out of Africa by our earliest ancestors to voyages to the edge of our solar system and beyond. These epic journeys have changed the world and our understanding of it.

In antiquity, Alexander the Great trekked to the Indus and Hannibal across the Alps; medieval times saw the remarkable travels of Genghis Khan and Ibn Battuta. The Renaissance brought Columbus to the Americas and the circumnavigation of the world. The following centuries saw gaps in the global maps filled by Tasman, Bering and Cook, and scientific expeditions by Maria Sibylla Merian, Alexander von Humboldt and Darwin. In modern times, the last inhospitable ends of the earth have been reached, including both poles and the world’s highest mountain, as well as the moon and beyond.

Featuring contributions from Brian Fagan, Barry Cunliffe, Paul Cartledge, Toby Wilkinson and Ranulph Fiennes, The Great Journeys in History reveals the stories of those who set out into the unknown and explored the unexplored.


Table of Contents

Ancient World – Out of Africa • Into a New World • Early Pacific Voyagers • Egyptian Explorers Herodotus • Xenophon • Alexander the Great • Pytheas the Greek • Hannibal • St Paul • The Emperor Hadrian Medieval World Early Chinese Travellers on the Silk Road • Early Voyagers to America Christian Pilgrimages • Muslim Pilgrimages • Genghis Khan • Marco Polo • Ibn Battuta • Cheng Ho, the Grand Eunuch • The Renaissance Christopher Columbus • Vasco da Gama & Bartolomeu Diaz Lodovico da Varthema • Ferdinand Magellan • Herman Cortés • Francisco Pizarro • Francisco de Orellana Early Explorers of North America • Francis Drake • Samuel Champlain • Early Searches for the Northwest Passage • 17th and 18th Centuries Abel Tasman • Maria Sibylla Merlan • Ippolito Desideri • Vitus Bering • James Bruce • James Cook • Jean-François de Lapérouse • Alexander Mackenzie • Mungo Park • 19th Century Alexander van Humboldt • Lewis & Clark’s Expedition across America • Jean-Louis Buckhardt Darwin and the Beagle • The Trail of Tears • Journeys into the Mexican Jungle • Later Searchers for the Northwest Passage • Henrich Barth & the Central African Mission • Search for the Source of the Nile Crossing Australia • Into the Heart of Africa • The Mekong River Expedition • Travels in Arabia Deserts TheNortheastPassage•ThePunditsExploreTibet•ExploringCentral&EastAsia ModernTimes Journeys Across Asia • To the North Pole • The Race to the South Pole • Shackleton & the Endurance Women Travellers in Asia • Charles Lindbergh • Women Pioneers of Flight • The Long March • Thor Heyerdahl & Kon-Tiki • Scaling Everest • Single-Handed around the World • To the Moon & Back • Voyages to the Bottom of the Ocean • Round the World by Balloon • Into Outer Space: Mars, Jupiter & Beyond