Populating the Planet
A two million year journey begins
Our story, the history of travel, begins here, with our early ancestors, specifically the type of human known to science as Homo erectus, which lived from about two million years ago up until about 150,000 years ago. Homo erectus
was remarkably unique and sophisticated in a number of ways: this was
the first type of human to control fire and one of the first to use
stone tools. And although we now know the species originated in East
Africa, the first fossil discovered was in 1891 in Java, an Indonesian
island some 5,000 miles away as the crow flies.
Of course, Homo erectus wasn’t a crow and it couldn’t fly, and although there is some evidence to suggest the species created basic rafts, it certainly didn’t invent anything which could cross thousands of miles of Indian Ocean. The only plausible answer, which has been confirmed by other fossil finds in the last century, is that Homo erectus saw fit to gradually leave Africa and colonise other parts of the world, notably the landmasses of Europe and Asia.
The first of the great human migrations had begun, and so too the history of travel.
It’s a peculiar thought that the human race once comprised several
different species: our dazzling egos rarely permit us to imagine any
other life form being remotely similar in terms of intelligence – even
our own family, so to speak. But the fact is there were many, and all
are now extinct apart from one: Homo sapiens, from which every human alive today is a direct descendant.
Like other human species, Homo sapiens – that’s us – originated in Africa, with the earliest fossils dating to approximately 200,000 years ago. And like Homo erectus, we migrated out of Africa and began colonising other parts of the world, with the first intrepid explorers flying the nest about 70,000 years ago.
Unlike Homo erectus, we travelled much further, most notably to Australia and the Americas, which meant that by about 10,000 years ago every major inhabitable landmass on Earth supported human life.
Our willingness to travel and explore had allowed us to populate the planet.
Of course, Homo erectus wasn’t a crow and it couldn’t fly, and although there is some evidence to suggest the species created basic rafts, it certainly didn’t invent anything which could cross thousands of miles of Indian Ocean. The only plausible answer, which has been confirmed by other fossil finds in the last century, is that Homo erectus saw fit to gradually leave Africa and colonise other parts of the world, notably the landmasses of Europe and Asia.
The first of the great human migrations had begun, and so too the history of travel.
It’s a peculiar thought that the human race once comprised several
different species: our dazzling egos rarely permit us to imagine any
other life form being remotely similar in terms of intelligence – even
our own family, so to speak. But the fact is there were many, and all
are now extinct apart from one: Homo sapiens, from which every human alive today is a direct descendant.Like other human species, Homo sapiens – that’s us – originated in Africa, with the earliest fossils dating to approximately 200,000 years ago. And like Homo erectus, we migrated out of Africa and began colonising other parts of the world, with the first intrepid explorers flying the nest about 70,000 years ago.
Unlike Homo erectus, we travelled much further, most notably to Australia and the Americas, which meant that by about 10,000 years ago every major inhabitable landmass on Earth supported human life.
Our willingness to travel and explore had allowed us to populate the planet.
The Rise of Civilisation
Settling down in the Age of Innovation
Ironically, the next phase in the history of travel was sparked by
people remaining in one place, abandoning the nomadic, hunter-gatherer
lifestyle which had served its purpose so well for hundreds of thousands
of years.
The reason for this was the invention of agriculture, otherwise known as the Neolithic Revolution, arguably the most important development in human history to date. It would go on to evolve independently in locations around the world, but the first example we know of was about 10,000 years ago in an area called the Fertile Crescent, which on today’s maps encompasses parts of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
Suddenly there was a surplus of food, people and, ultimately, time. Humans were no longer just surviving; they were living.
The implications of this were vast, but one particular way which affects our story is the innovation of new technologies which enabled us to better move around.
The reason for this was the invention of agriculture, otherwise known as the Neolithic Revolution, arguably the most important development in human history to date. It would go on to evolve independently in locations around the world, but the first example we know of was about 10,000 years ago in an area called the Fertile Crescent, which on today’s maps encompasses parts of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
Map of the Fertile Crescent
The domestication of plants and animals removed the need for
people to roam endless landscapes in search of food and water. Small
groups of nomadic hunters, free from competition, were able to join
together into single, settled societies, which were the seeds of
civilisation as we know it.Suddenly there was a surplus of food, people and, ultimately, time. Humans were no longer just surviving; they were living.
The implications of this were vast, but one particular way which affects our story is the innovation of new technologies which enabled us to better move around.
The Wheel
Rolling into a new era of travel
The use of logs as rollers dates back deeper than we’ll ever know,
but the modern wheel – that is, built with spokes, attached to an axle
and used specifically for transport – seems to have emerged around 5,000
years ago.To thank for this we have the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, who inhabited parts of present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, and formed one of the three earliest civilisations; the other two were Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Like any good idea, this one quickly spread, though without decent roads to travel on, the world’s oceans and rivers would continue to provide the best surface for long distance journeys.
The Sailboat
Embracing the winds of change
No one knows precisely when the first boats were invented, but the
sailboat – a significant improvement on, say, a dugout canoe – probably
came into use around the same time as the modern wheel.
The Mesopotamians are credited with its invention, and in any case certainly benefited from it, using it to develop a flourishing trade with neighbouring territories and cementing their place in history as one of the world’s most successful civilisations.
The sail boat would continue to evolve and develop, and some of
the great voyages throughout history would never have been achieved were
it not for this type of vessel. It allowed people to traverse vast
distances in a way which simply would never have been possible by land.
Other ancient civilisations, such as the Egyptians and Sumerians, would continue to use the sail boat to both establish trading posts and to begin exploring the wider world. Eventually this would culminate in the first mini age of discovery, with Ancient Greek and Carthaginian explorers like Hanno, Nearchus and Hippalus making extraordinarily ambitious voyages to places as far east as the Indian subcontinent and as far north as the British Isles.
The Mesopotamians are credited with its invention, and in any case certainly benefited from it, using it to develop a flourishing trade with neighbouring territories and cementing their place in history as one of the world’s most successful civilisations.
Mesopotamian Sailboat
Mesopotamian flood myth
Other ancient civilisations, such as the Egyptians and Sumerians, would continue to use the sail boat to both establish trading posts and to begin exploring the wider world. Eventually this would culminate in the first mini age of discovery, with Ancient Greek and Carthaginian explorers like Hanno, Nearchus and Hippalus making extraordinarily ambitious voyages to places as far east as the Indian subcontinent and as far north as the British Isles.
Classical Explorers
Voyagers from the ancient world
-
Hanno the Navigator
500-400 BC
This Carthaginian explorer headed a fleet of ships which left the Mediterranean and explored the northwest coast of Africa. A few colonies were established on behalf of Carthage, which at the time was a major power in the Mediterranean. En route, the expedition discovered an island where the indigenous folk didn’t take too kindly to the intrusion. According to Hanno, they were violent savages, but he then casually notes skinning three captured females, which seems somewhat hypocritical. -
Himilco the Navigator
500-400 BC
Himilco was also a Carthaginian explorer, but unlike his counterpart he sailed north instead of south, tracking the Atlantic coastline of Europe as far as Albion, which is the earliest known name of the British Isles. Very little is known of the man himself, or indeed his voyage, only that he was probably trying to establish trading posts, and that he returned with terrifying tales of sea monsters encountered en route. There may have been some truth in this: have you ever seen a giant squid? -
Scylax of Caryanda
550-450 BC
This Greek explorer is most famous for his 30-month voyage in which he was responsible for discovering the course of the Indus River. On the orders of Darius I, king of the Persian Empire, Scylax set sail from a place called Gandhara (the northern-most part of modern-day Pakistan) and followed the river to the Indian Ocean. From there, he sailed west, eventually reaching the Red Sea, and then as far north as Suez, at which point he doubled back for the return journey. -
Nearchus
400-300 BC
Nearchus was a prolific Greek explorer who worked for Alexander the Great, who through a series of successful military campaigns established one of the largest empires of the ancient world. Among many other regions, Alexander conquered the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, at which point he dispatched Nearchus down the Indus River to explore. In the following months Nearchus and his men would explore the Persian Gulf and be the first Greeks to visit Bahrain. -
Eudoxus of Cyzicus
200-100 BC
Eudoxus of Cyzicus was a Greek navigator who developed an interest in Africa after being blown off course onto its east coast from the Indian Ocean. He found the remains of a ship, which he believed had originally come from the west, meaning it had attempted to circumnavigate Africa. This inspired Eudoxus to try himself. Alas, he never returned, and was never heard from again. 1500 years would pass before anyone else attempted this extraordinary feat. -
Hippalus
100-0 BC
Hippalus was a Greek navigator and explorer who is best known for his voyages from the Red Sea to the west coast of India across the Indian Ocean. In completing these journeys, he deduced that the Indian coastline ran from north to south - not, as everyone else in the ancient world had presumed, west to east. This discovery by Hippalus meant that the time it took seafaring travellers to reach India from the Red Sea was dramtically reduced.
Although exploration in the ancient world offered few guarantees,
if voyagers were fortunate enough to return with their lives, they could
also be sure to return with at least one invaluable commodity:
knowledge.
The world was an enormous jigsaw puzzle which had to be painstakingly put together, piece by piece, a practice which we know today as cartography – the making of maps.
Depending on how loosely the word ‘map’ is defined, arguably the earliest known example can be found in the caves of Lascaux, near Bordeaux in France. Some of the pre-historic rock art within these caves depict star constellations, which throughout history have provided direction and helped people to navigate. The earliest known printed examples of star maps are the work of a Chinese astronomer called Su Song, who lived in the 11th century.
The first maps of planetary geography are difficult to date; there
is little consensus regarding precisely when they emerged, and indeed
whether some examples are even maps of real terrain as opposed to
mythical lands.
It’s generally agreed the earliest surviving attempt at a world map is an engraved clay tablet from the ancient civilisation – and shown from the perspective of – Babylonia, dated to around the 6th century BC.
As time wore on and knowledge of the world increased among civilisations, maps grew from rudimentary reckonings to increasingly accurate depictions on much larger scales. A cartographer called Anaximander is credited with producing the first map (of which no evidence remains) showing the entire world as known to the Ancient Greeks, and his efforts were improved upon over the next few centuries by figures like Hecataeus, Herodotus and Eratosthenes.
The stars may have given humans direction, but direction alone was not enough: we needed to know what we could expect to find in any given direction, and maps answered that need.
The world was an enormous jigsaw puzzle which had to be painstakingly put together, piece by piece, a practice which we know today as cartography – the making of maps.
Depending on how loosely the word ‘map’ is defined, arguably the earliest known example can be found in the caves of Lascaux, near Bordeaux in France. Some of the pre-historic rock art within these caves depict star constellations, which throughout history have provided direction and helped people to navigate. The earliest known printed examples of star maps are the work of a Chinese astronomer called Su Song, who lived in the 11th century.
Lascaux rock art
Su Song's star map
The first maps of planetary geography are difficult to date; there
is little consensus regarding precisely when they emerged, and indeed
whether some examples are even maps of real terrain as opposed to
mythical lands.It’s generally agreed the earliest surviving attempt at a world map is an engraved clay tablet from the ancient civilisation – and shown from the perspective of – Babylonia, dated to around the 6th century BC.
As time wore on and knowledge of the world increased among civilisations, maps grew from rudimentary reckonings to increasingly accurate depictions on much larger scales. A cartographer called Anaximander is credited with producing the first map (of which no evidence remains) showing the entire world as known to the Ancient Greeks, and his efforts were improved upon over the next few centuries by figures like Hecataeus, Herodotus and Eratosthenes.
Early maps by Hecataeus and Herodotus
In the 2nd century AD the Greco-Egyptian geographer Claudius Ptolemy wrote his Geography,
which compiled everything the Romans knew about the world at the time,
and was fervently translated by knowledge-hungry civilisations for the
next thousand years.The stars may have given humans direction, but direction alone was not enough: we needed to know what we could expect to find in any given direction, and maps answered that need.
The first Emperor, one Qin Shi Huang, had rather grander
aspirations than establishing colonies and trading posts. He decided he
wanted to live forever, so sent his minions off into the East China Sea
with the unenviable task of locating the secret of immortality.
The most famous of these voyagers was a man called Xu Fu, who duly went about fulfilling the request in the company of 3,000 virgin children. Between 220 and 210 BC Xu Fu made two expeditions. He returned from the first empty handed. He didn’t return at all from the second one, and is presumed to have lived out the rest of his days on the islands which we now know as Japan.
The Qin dynasty was followed by the Han dynasty, one of the rulers
of which – Liu Bang – had slightly more grounded ambitions with regards
to the outside world. Eager to know what lay in the lands to the west,
in 138 BC he dispatched a man called Zhang Qian to find out and report
back with information.
Little did Zhang Qian know, but his resulting journey into the heart of Asia would lay the foundations for one of the most important overland trade routes in human history: the Silk Road.
The most famous of these voyagers was a man called Xu Fu, who duly went about fulfilling the request in the company of 3,000 virgin children. Between 220 and 210 BC Xu Fu made two expeditions. He returned from the first empty handed. He didn’t return at all from the second one, and is presumed to have lived out the rest of his days on the islands which we now know as Japan.
Zhang Qian
Little did Zhang Qian know, but his resulting journey into the heart of Asia would lay the foundations for one of the most important overland trade routes in human history: the Silk Road.
Civilisations to Empires
Expanding to Colonise the planet
As we have seen, many thousands of years ago some humans began to
abandon their nomadic existence, settling down into small communities to
farm the land rather than roam it. Some of these communities developed
into societies. Some of these societies developed into civilisations.
And some of these civilisations developed into empires.
Travel led to knowledge, to trade, to unfathomable riches. Ultimately it led to power.
Many empires had sprung up by the start of the first millennium, but there was one in particular that dominates the history books, just as it dominated much of the Western world during its existence: the Roman Empire.
Furthermore, the Romans weren’t exactly famous for their shy and retiring nature: they were quite partial to a bit of conquest here and there, meaning a decent army was essential. As well as conquering new lands, the army was responsible for protecting territory already gained, which meant soldiers needed to be able to travel through the empire with ease, which in turn meant good infrastructure was essential.
Travel led to knowledge, to trade, to unfathomable riches. Ultimately it led to power.
Many empires had sprung up by the start of the first millennium, but there was one in particular that dominates the history books, just as it dominated much of the Western world during its existence: the Roman Empire.
Map of the Roman Empire
As you might imagine, the Roman Empire – the size of which at its
height in the 2nd century was unprecedented – cost a fair bit to run.
This meant trade was essential, which in turn meant travel was
essential, both within and outside the borders.Furthermore, the Romans weren’t exactly famous for their shy and retiring nature: they were quite partial to a bit of conquest here and there, meaning a decent army was essential. As well as conquering new lands, the army was responsible for protecting territory already gained, which meant soldiers needed to be able to travel through the empire with ease, which in turn meant good infrastructure was essential.
All Roads Lead to Rome
Stitching the Empire Together
The Romans did not invent paved pathways. Civilisations the world
over, from the Incas to the Celts, developed these independently. The
Romans were not the first to build roads to link settlements. The
Minoans, for example, constructed a 50km road through the mountains of
Crete in 2000 BC, more than a thousand years before Rome even existed.
The Romans were the first, however, to build long distance roads on a massive scale, and this made their empire the mightiest the world had ever known.
The Romans were so prolifically effective at facilitating travel within their empire that many of their roads are still clearly visible to this day, and others form the literal foundations for major routes still in use.
This expansive network was clearly helpful for the army, and traders who needed to transport goods, but others benefited too. Super-wealthy Romans built holiday villas in places like Pompeii, Baiae and Capri, and used them for vacations, marking the beginning of leisure travel and development of seaside resorts.
And then there were the early pilgrims, whose impressive journeys introduced an entirely new type of travel.
The Romans were the first, however, to build long distance roads on a massive scale, and this made their empire the mightiest the world had ever known.
An ancient roman road
Rome was the hub, and great highways radiated out from the ancient
city like spokes on a wheel, stitching the entire empire together, from
the grassy hillocks of northern England to the burnt deserts of Saudi
Arabia.The Romans were so prolifically effective at facilitating travel within their empire that many of their roads are still clearly visible to this day, and others form the literal foundations for major routes still in use.
This expansive network was clearly helpful for the army, and traders who needed to transport goods, but others benefited too. Super-wealthy Romans built holiday villas in places like Pompeii, Baiae and Capri, and used them for vacations, marking the beginning of leisure travel and development of seaside resorts.
And then there were the early pilgrims, whose impressive journeys introduced an entirely new type of travel.
The Pilgrims
Pious Walks of Faith
Whatever your religious convictions, or absence thereof, the vast
majority of modern academics agree that Jesus existed as a historical
figure. The general consensus among historians is that he was born
around 5 BC and was probably a Jewish rabbi who preached his message in
Nazareth in Israel, and was almost certainly crucified by the Romans in
Jerusalem when he was about 33.
He also sparked the beginnings of Christianity, which by the 4th century had become the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. It was around this time that early Christians began making the first pilgrimages to sites associated with Jesus in the Holy Land.
He also sparked the beginnings of Christianity, which by the 4th century had become the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. It was around this time that early Christians began making the first pilgrimages to sites associated with Jesus in the Holy Land.
Map of the Holy Land
One of the earliest we know of was undertaken by the Pilgrim of
Bordeaux, an anonymous character who travelled from France to Jerusalem
and back again from 333-334 AD. He wrote about his journey in the form
of an itinerarium, an ancient type of map used by the Romans to navigate their extensive road network.
Modern Day Mecca
Just as Mecca is the holiest city in Islam, Varanasi is the
holiest city in Hinduism. People have lived there for more than 3,000
years, making it one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the
world, and older than most world religions, including Christianity and
Islam.For hundreds of years Hindus have been converging in this sacred city to bathe in the River Ganges, which to them is an incredibly sacred body of water.
Bathing in Varanasi
Hindus believe that to bathe here cleanses all sins and releases
one's soul, so some terminally ill Hindus travel here to die, making
this particular pilgrimage a one way journey for many.The city is famous for its ghats, a series of steps which lead down to the riverfront. There are almost 100, and while most are used by bathers, some are reserved for public cremations, which take place throughout the day.
Each individual pilgrimage is a very special type of travel: one geared towards spiritual betterment and inspired by faith.
Viking Voyagers
The Seafaring Scandanavians
Lindisfarne Castle
The monks wouldn’t have seen this type of vessel before. These boats were made from wood. They were long, narrow and shallow; their sterns and bows arched up symmetrically from both ends. The sterns were topped with carvings of snarling heads.
The boats had small cloth sails but were mainly propelled by teams of oarsmen sat on chests containing their worldly possessions.
The oarsmen were Vikings and their boats were called longships, which just happened to be ruthlessly effective at transporting would-be invaders into the heart of unsuspecting settlements, either from the ocean or rivers.
A Panoramic View of Lindisfarne
The monks on Lindisfarne on that summer’s day in 793 were about to
become the first victims of what would be a 300 year Viking assault on
settlements all over Europe.
There are lots of myths about the Vikings – horned helmets being a
classic – but one indisputable fact is that they were prolific
seafaring travellers who completed a series of incredible journeys from
their Scandinavian homelands.
Long distance land travel became very difficult: what had once
been a vast empire through which citizens and traders could move freely
was now divided into hundreds of tribal territories, devoid of any
central power structure. Trade and communication between distant lands
suffered greatly as a result.
The Vikings realised that sea travel was the most viable way to
connect with the rest of the world, be it for trade, settlement or just
good old fashioned rape and pillage.
Indeed, the Vikings were no strangers to a bit of pillage. These Norse warriors plundered coastal and riverside settlements for hundreds of years, getting as far east as Istanbul and as far south as the north coast of Africa, crashing down like tsunamis upon vulnerable populations time and again.
One contemporary British chronicler gave an indication of the fearsome reputation the Vikings quickly established:
On another, he killed a rival Viking leader by snapping his ribs at his spine and pulling them out so they resembled wings, then wrenching the victim’s lungs out through the gaping cavity in his back. This particular method of execution became known as the Blood Eagle.
The Vikings as explorers were exceptional, even when they didn’t mean to be: many of their most impressive discoveries were accidental. On one occasion, a Viking called Naddodd drifted off course on his way from Norway to the Faroe Islands, and ended up on Iceland. He didn’t much care for the climate and left, but he was followed by one Ingolfr Arnarson a few years later, who visited with the aim of settling.
As the story goes, Ingolfr, upon sighting land, cast two wooden pillars into the sea, vowing to settle between wherever they washed up. He reached the coast, scoured it for the pillars, found them and set up camp. Today this settlement is called Reykjavik.
Indeed, the Vikings were no strangers to a bit of pillage. These Norse warriors plundered coastal and riverside settlements for hundreds of years, getting as far east as Istanbul and as far south as the north coast of Africa, crashing down like tsunamis upon vulnerable populations time and again.
One contemporary British chronicler gave an indication of the fearsome reputation the Vikings quickly established:One Viking leader, Ivar the Boneless, was remarkably brutal. He was what other Vikings called a ‘berserker’, which meant he was one of a special few who went into a trance-like frenzy during battle (this is where the English word ‘berserk’ originates from). On one occasion Ivar dispensed with a captured English king by strapping him to a tree and shooting arrows at him until his head exploded.Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race. The heathens poured out the blood of saints around the altar, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the streets.
On another, he killed a rival Viking leader by snapping his ribs at his spine and pulling them out so they resembled wings, then wrenching the victim’s lungs out through the gaping cavity in his back. This particular method of execution became known as the Blood Eagle.
The Vikings as explorers were exceptional, even when they didn’t mean to be: many of their most impressive discoveries were accidental. On one occasion, a Viking called Naddodd drifted off course on his way from Norway to the Faroe Islands, and ended up on Iceland. He didn’t much care for the climate and left, but he was followed by one Ingolfr Arnarson a few years later, who visited with the aim of settling.
As the story goes, Ingolfr, upon sighting land, cast two wooden pillars into the sea, vowing to settle between wherever they washed up. He reached the coast, scoured it for the pillars, found them and set up camp. Today this settlement is called Reykjavik.
Reykjavik, Iceland
The Vikings were also the first Europeans to travel to North
America – not, as every school child will tell you, Christopher Columbus
and his crew. About 100 years after Iceland was settled, some Vikings
travelled even further west, ending up on Greenland, where a couple of
colonies were established.
Map of Vinland
Soon after, a Viking captain called Bjarni Herjolfsson was blown
off course on his way to one of the new Greenland colonies, and sighted
the North American continent (but didn’t land). He was soon followed by
another Viking, Leif Erikson, who did land and established a small
settlement in the northern reaches of Newfoundland: he called it
Vinland.Although the Newfoundland settlement didn’t last long, Leif secured his place in history by being the first European to set foot in North America.
He would not be the last.
The Islamic Golden Age
Muhammad and the Muslim Monopoly
After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman
Empire – also known as the Byzantine Empire – enjoyed an initial period
of relative peace, though soon became embroiled in a series of
exhausting wars with its neighbour, the Sasanian Empire.
The confrontations culminated during the first two decades of the seventh century into a final conflict which crippled both powers both economically and militarily.
It was around this time that a man called Muhammad, born in the
city of Mecca in modern-day Saudi Arabia, began claiming he was having
conversations with higher beings. He started preaching the resulting
revelations and gradually amassed an army (literally) of followers, who
under his leadership conquered Mecca, which along with the rest of the
region swiftly converted to a new religion: Islam.
By the time Muhammad died in 632, he had unified the Arabian Peninsula both politically and religiously, and this marked the beginning of a golden age for the Muslim world.
Over the next century, the Muslims swept through the Middle East, Northern Africa and parts of Southern Europe, invading and claiming territory from the weakened Byzantine and Sasanian empires, and establishing their own empire – or caliphate – which by 750 had become the largest the world had ever seen.
Most major cities featured hospitals which were open 24 hours a day and which by law had to provide free healthcare for citizens and foreigners alike, regardless of wealth or status – and mental illness was taken just as seriously as physical ailment. Freedom of expression was the norm, and religious tolerance was widespread, with high level government positions being awarded on merit to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. Education flourished with the emergence of leading learning centres, like the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco, widely regarded to be the oldest in the world and certainly the first to issue degrees.
The confrontations culminated during the first two decades of the seventh century into a final conflict which crippled both powers both economically and militarily.
Calligraphic representation of Muhammad's name
By the time Muhammad died in 632, he had unified the Arabian Peninsula both politically and religiously, and this marked the beginning of a golden age for the Muslim world.
Over the next century, the Muslims swept through the Middle East, Northern Africa and parts of Southern Europe, invading and claiming territory from the weakened Byzantine and Sasanian empires, and establishing their own empire – or caliphate – which by 750 had become the largest the world had ever seen.
Map of the Umayyad Caliphate
The Islamic caliphate fostered remarkable ambitions and was extraordinarily progressive, even by today’s standards.Most major cities featured hospitals which were open 24 hours a day and which by law had to provide free healthcare for citizens and foreigners alike, regardless of wealth or status – and mental illness was taken just as seriously as physical ailment. Freedom of expression was the norm, and religious tolerance was widespread, with high level government positions being awarded on merit to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. Education flourished with the emergence of leading learning centres, like the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco, widely regarded to be the oldest in the world and certainly the first to issue degrees.
Rudolf Ernst's Painting 'Smoking the Hookah'
One of the key tenets of the Islamic Golden Age was the efforts of scholars to translate into Arabic everything that was known about the world, be it regarding medicine, architecture, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, science, or any other subject. And they absorbed this knowledge from peoples past and present; the Greeks and the Romans, the Indians and the Chinese, the Persians and the Phoenicians, the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians.
As well as fervently translating and documenting all that was known about the world, the Muslims travelled throughout it as far as they feasibly could, establishing trading posts and connecting with foreign lands. The empire ran on a merchant economy, the foundation of which was the vastly lucrative trade routes which ran from the far east of China to the far west of northern Africa and the Mediterranean.
The Muslim empire was the beating heart of the global market; everything either began there, passed through there, or ended up there. Traders travelled far and wide, both disseminating and returning with new inventions, technologies, ideas, foods, goods, and every other conceivable thing that contributes to the makeup of human society.
Naturally, the success and influence of the Muslim empire did not go unnoticed by other world powers, and the first two or three centuries of the second millennium would mark its decline, with major threats emerging from both the west and the east.
Mongols on the Move
Genghis Khan and the Silk Routes
While the Muslims were busy fending off the last of the Crusaders
from the west, a greater and far more ominous power was rising in the
east.
By the start of the thirteenth century, a Mongolian man who went
by the name Temujin had succeeded in unifying the nomadic tribes of
northeast Asia into a single dynasty.
The man became known as Genghis Khan and his dynasty developed over the next few decades into the Mongol Empire, which at its greatest extent in 1279 covered almost 25% of the planet’s land surface.
To this day the Mongol Empire remains the largest contained land empire in the history of the world.
It was also one of the shortest-lived, fragmenting into warring factions a mere 150 years after it emerged, but for those few decades of stability an unprecedented freedom of movement and degree of safety for travellers and traders existed throughout the vast territory.
“A maiden bearing a nugget of gold on her head can wander safely through the realm,” was a common saying at the time.
Whether or not a gold-carrying maiden ever did wander through the realm is unclear, but we do know that a Venetian merchant called Marco Polo did.
Genghis Khan
The man became known as Genghis Khan and his dynasty developed over the next few decades into the Mongol Empire, which at its greatest extent in 1279 covered almost 25% of the planet’s land surface.
To this day the Mongol Empire remains the largest contained land empire in the history of the world.
It was also one of the shortest-lived, fragmenting into warring factions a mere 150 years after it emerged, but for those few decades of stability an unprecedented freedom of movement and degree of safety for travellers and traders existed throughout the vast territory.
Map of the Mongol Empire
Historians have termed this period of stability the Pax Mongolica –
the literal Latin translation is ‘Mongol Peace’ – and it meant the Silk
Road, the collective name for the ancient land trade routes linking
Europe and Asia, was fully re-established after centuries of
fragmentation and being fraught with danger.“A maiden bearing a nugget of gold on her head can wander safely through the realm,” was a common saying at the time.
Whether or not a gold-carrying maiden ever did wander through the realm is unclear, but we do know that a Venetian merchant called Marco Polo did.
Marco Polo
The Merchant of Venice
Venetian Rustichello da Pisa must have scarcely been able to
believe his luck. While languishing in a Genoese prison in 1298,
probably for his part in a battle between Venice and Genoa (in which
Venice lost), he was given a new cellmate who went by the name Marco
Polo, a fellow Venetian who had been imprisoned for similar reasons.
Pisa was an Italian romance writer with an insatiable interest in
the East, which is exactly where Polo, a Venetian merchant, had just
experienced one of the most epic adventures of all time: a 24 year roam
through lands that held practically mythical status to Europeans at the
time.
Marco was born in Venice in 1254 into a family of wealthy and influential jewel merchants. When he was six years old, his father and uncle, Niccolo and Maffeo, left Venice and travelled first to Constantinople (Istanbul) and then further east into the Mongol Empire, where they set up trading posts and met Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler of China.
Intrigued by Christianity, the emperor urged the two merchants to go back to Europe and return with scholars who could better explain the religion and European society in general. Niccolo and Maffeo arrived back in Venice in 1269 and two years later set off again for the East, this time with two missionaries and the teenaged Marco in tow.
Marco Polo
Marco was born in Venice in 1254 into a family of wealthy and influential jewel merchants. When he was six years old, his father and uncle, Niccolo and Maffeo, left Venice and travelled first to Constantinople (Istanbul) and then further east into the Mongol Empire, where they set up trading posts and met Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler of China.
Intrigued by Christianity, the emperor urged the two merchants to go back to Europe and return with scholars who could better explain the religion and European society in general. Niccolo and Maffeo arrived back in Venice in 1269 and two years later set off again for the East, this time with two missionaries and the teenaged Marco in tow.
The caravan of Marco Polo traveling to India
Kublai Khan welcomed the Polos warmly when they returned, and
for the next 17 years they lived in his lands. Little is known of these
years, but they seem to have embarked on many diplomatic missions which
gave them the chance to travel widely throughout the empire.
When they eventually returned to Venice in 1295 – now fabulously rich – they found it at war with Genoa, which is how Marco ended up in his cell with Rustichello.
Rustichello was enthralled by Marco’s life and urged the explorer to tell him everything. The result was the Book of the Marvels of the World, a work which described in detail the regions of the Middle East, India, Sri Lanka, Central Asia, Russia, China, Japan, South East Asia and the coast of East Africa, not to mention the inner workings of Far Eastern society.
Book of the Marvels of the World
Though generally agreed at the time (and now) to be embellished,
the book was extremely popular, widely translated and published time and
time again.The tales Marco Polo returned with played a big part in reigniting European interest in the Far East and thus helped to spark the European Age of Discovery, a golden age for travel and exploration.
As we have seen, in 1498 Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer,
became the first European to sail around Africa and reach India. The
momentous implications of this journey cannot be emphasised enough.
Vasco da Gama filled a colossal gap in European maritime knowledge and
opened up a whole new era of travel.
The entire voyage took almost two years, during which time da Gama
lost two of the four ships in his fleet and more than half of the 170
crew. But he returned a hero, having discovered the fabled Indian spice
routes. In the decade that followed, the Portuguese would travel even
further east, eventually discovering and conquering the source of the
trade, the Spice Islands themselves (today the Maluku Islands) in
Indonesia.
It should be said, for the record, that Vasco da Gama, for all his navigational prowess, was a man of exceptional cruelty. Driven by his desire to establish Portuguese dominance in the region, he dealt with anyone he viewed as competition – and those he didn’t – with ruthless violence. On one occasion he intercepted a ship in the Indian Ocean with 400 unarmed pilgrims on their way to Mecca.
After looting the boat and locking the men, women and children below deck, he set fire to the ship and burned them all alive. An eye witness described how da Gama was unmoved after looking through the porthole to see panic-stricken mothers holding up their babies and begging for mercy.
Vasco da Gama
It should be said, for the record, that Vasco da Gama, for all his navigational prowess, was a man of exceptional cruelty. Driven by his desire to establish Portuguese dominance in the region, he dealt with anyone he viewed as competition – and those he didn’t – with ruthless violence. On one occasion he intercepted a ship in the Indian Ocean with 400 unarmed pilgrims on their way to Mecca.
After looting the boat and locking the men, women and children below deck, he set fire to the ship and burned them all alive. An eye witness described how da Gama was unmoved after looking through the porthole to see panic-stricken mothers holding up their babies and begging for mercy.
While the Portuguese were tentatively scoping their way along the
coast of Africa looking for a way around to Asia, the Spanish were
looking to the west. They had the same ambitions as the Portuguese – to
tap into the spice trade, albeit from a different direction.
Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, was the man hired by the Spanish monarchs to find the route.
Contrary to popular belief, Columbus and his contemporaries knew that the world was round, not flat, so to seek Asia travelling west across the Atlantic was not an unreasonable strategy.
What Columbus didn’t know about was the existence of the American continents. No one knew about them. So when Columbus sighted land during his first voyage in 1492 he assumed he had discovered the other side of Asia, which is how the Caribbean gained its misnomer of the West Indies.
The land Columbus found – he would return another three times in
his lifetime – quickly became known as the New World, and word spread
throughout Europe like wildfire.
Columbus never did make it to Asia and he wasn’t the first European to reach the Americas (as you may remember, a Viking expedition travelled there hundreds of years previous), but he was the first European to establish regular contact with the new lands, and for this he became one of the most important figures in the history of the world.
Christopher Columbus
Contrary to popular belief, Columbus and his contemporaries knew that the world was round, not flat, so to seek Asia travelling west across the Atlantic was not an unreasonable strategy.
What Columbus didn’t know about was the existence of the American continents. No one knew about them. So when Columbus sighted land during his first voyage in 1492 he assumed he had discovered the other side of Asia, which is how the Caribbean gained its misnomer of the West Indies.
The New World
Columbus never did make it to Asia and he wasn’t the first European to reach the Americas (as you may remember, a Viking expedition travelled there hundreds of years previous), but he was the first European to establish regular contact with the new lands, and for this he became one of the most important figures in the history of the world.
One obvious yet incredibly challenging journey that still had to
be made was a full circumnavigation of the planet. This challenge was
given to the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, hired by Spain, who
in 1519 set sail across the Atlantic with the same goal as Columbus: to
find a westerly route to the Spice Islands, from which he could carry
on in the same direction all the way back to Europe, thus completing a
full loop.
The voyage was unsurprisingly tortuous, and by the time the fleet
eventually found its way to the Pacific after crossing through the
southern tip of South America — now known as the Straits of Magellan —
there had been mutinies, storms and wrecks. Still, the remaining men
pushed on across the Pacific and found their goal: the Spice Islands.
For Magellan, this was the region where his journey ended. He decided to try and convert the inhabitants of Mactan, an island in the Philippines, to Christianity, and when the leader of the island refused, Magellan returned with the intention to attack. The resulting battle didn’t go well for the captain: he was incapacitated by a bamboo spear and subsequently hacked to death by the locals.
Some of his men survived and carried on the journey, now under the leadership of a man called Juan Sebastian Elcano, and by 1522 arrived back in Spain. Of the five ships and 270 men that originally set sail three years before, one ship returned with just 18 survivors.
Map of the Maluku Islands
For Magellan, this was the region where his journey ended. He decided to try and convert the inhabitants of Mactan, an island in the Philippines, to Christianity, and when the leader of the island refused, Magellan returned with the intention to attack. The resulting battle didn’t go well for the captain: he was incapacitated by a bamboo spear and subsequently hacked to death by the locals.
Some of his men survived and carried on the journey, now under the leadership of a man called Juan Sebastian Elcano, and by 1522 arrived back in Spain. Of the five ships and 270 men that originally set sail three years before, one ship returned with just 18 survivors.
By the turn of the seventeenth century the coasts of most of the
world’s significant landmasses had been mapped to varying degrees of
accuracy, but there was one major omission: the 3 million square miles
of land that we now know as Australia.
Medieval Europeans suspected the existence of a great continent, mainly based on the theory that a certain amount of land in the Southern Hemisphere was needed to balance out the land in the Northern Hemisphere. But no one had ever actually seen it.
Not until, that is, a Dutch navigator called Willem Janszoon
landed on the north-eastern tip of the country while searching for
trading posts in 1606.
He soon departed back to Asia, though, and another 40 years would pass before someone saw fit to delve a little deeper. That person was a Dutch explorer called Abel Tasman, who between 1642-44 became the first explorer to circumnavigate Australia.
Tasman also became the first explorer to reach Tasmania (his namesake), New Zealand and many of the Pacific Islands, including Fiji. He was sufficiently interested enough in Australia to afford it the name New Holland, loosely claiming it for the Dutch, but neither he nor any of his compatriots ever settled there.
Medieval Europeans suspected the existence of a great continent, mainly based on the theory that a certain amount of land in the Southern Hemisphere was needed to balance out the land in the Northern Hemisphere. But no one had ever actually seen it.
Abel Tasman
He soon departed back to Asia, though, and another 40 years would pass before someone saw fit to delve a little deeper. That person was a Dutch explorer called Abel Tasman, who between 1642-44 became the first explorer to circumnavigate Australia.
Tasman also became the first explorer to reach Tasmania (his namesake), New Zealand and many of the Pacific Islands, including Fiji. He was sufficiently interested enough in Australia to afford it the name New Holland, loosely claiming it for the Dutch, but neither he nor any of his compatriots ever settled there.
Worlds Collide
The Columbian Exchange
The Age of Discovery began with Portugal trying to tap into the
lucrative spice trade and ended with a global mingling of cultures,
foods and technologies on a scale never seen before. Historians have
termed this meeting of the Old and New Worlds the Columbian Exchange,
after the explorer who was the first to establish regular contact.
The extent to which people benefited from the Columbian Exchange really depended on where they were born. Generally speaking, the march towards globalisation was enormously advantageous to European powers and mostly cataclysmic for everyone else.
This meant there was practically no resistance to European powers seeking to establish colonies in the Americas. When these colonies had been established, people were needed to work in the fields of the new lands, and for this resource Europeans turned their attention to Africa. And so began the Atlantic slave trade.
One of the many, many consequences of the Age of Discovery and Columbian Exchange was that Europe became phenomenally rich – and remains so to this day.
The extent to which people benefited from the Columbian Exchange really depended on where they were born. Generally speaking, the march towards globalisation was enormously advantageous to European powers and mostly cataclysmic for everyone else.
Native American Indian Tribe
Diseases like small pox and measles had always been a problem for
Europeans and Asians, but after countless generations many had developed
a natural immunity. Native Americans, however, had no immunity
whatsoever, and these diseases absolutely decimated their populations.
Conservative estimates claim that 85-95% of these peoples had been wiped
out by Old World diseases within 150 years.This meant there was practically no resistance to European powers seeking to establish colonies in the Americas. When these colonies had been established, people were needed to work in the fields of the new lands, and for this resource Europeans turned their attention to Africa. And so began the Atlantic slave trade.
One of the many, many consequences of the Age of Discovery and Columbian Exchange was that Europe became phenomenally rich – and remains so to this day.
Antiquity Revived
The Renaissance Blooms
As we learnt earlier, after the collapse of the Roman Empire,
Europe was plunged into what historians have termed the Dark Ages, one
of the many lowlights of which was the Black Death, which wiped out
half the continent's population.
Perhaps understandably, by the time European powers had finally gathered themselves and achieved some stability they began looking back to the ancient civilisations of Rome and Greece with an air of nostalgia.
It was this cultural movement that set the scene for the first ever gap years.
Perhaps understandably, by the time European powers had finally gathered themselves and achieved some stability they began looking back to the ancient civilisations of Rome and Greece with an air of nostalgia.
View of Florence from the Piazza Michelangelo
The renewed interest in classical civilisations – combined with a
surplus of wealth – sparked a cultural movement called the Renaissance.
It sprouted in Florence before blossoming throughout Italy and then the
whole of Europe, and at its essence was a revival of European art and
literature inspired by classical models.It was this cultural movement that set the scene for the first ever gap years.
For about 200 years the Grand Tour was a privilege only available
to the fabulously wealthy. However, as industry developed, the
possibility to travel both domestically and internationally widened
enormously for those lower down the social ladder.Industry Arrives
And the Railroad Sparks Mass Movement
The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the mid 18th century
and spread throughout Europe and North America over the next few
decades.
The ways in which it changed society are practically infinite but as far as our story is concerned one of the most interesting developments was that of the railroad.
Britain was the first to recognise the infrastructural advantages of railways and by 1850 – just 20 years after the first intercity track opened – there were an astonishing 7,000 miles of railroads stitching the country together.
The ways in which it changed society are practically infinite but as far as our story is concerned one of the most interesting developments was that of the railroad.
Train in Temecula, 1888
The main cities of Europe were already reasonably well-connected
by actual roads, but railways offered a considerably cheaper, quicker,
safer and more comfortable alternative.Britain was the first to recognise the infrastructural advantages of railways and by 1850 – just 20 years after the first intercity track opened – there were an astonishing 7,000 miles of railroads stitching the country together.
Group including Isambard Kingdom Brunel (far right)
The birth of the railroad marked a colossal leap forward in making travel accessible to the masses and it wasn’t long before someone capitalised on the new infrastructure.
Many people even to this day claim that train travel is the best way to get around. It’s relatively cheap, it allows travellers to absorb the scenery through which they move and it offers the kind of comfort impossible to find on planes and busses. It is also an incredibly safe form of travel.
Brits Abroad
Leisure Travel Launches
One summer’s day in 1841 a man called Thomas Cook was walking to a
meeting in Leicester, England. The meeting was hosted by his local
temperance society, part of a wider movement which campaigned for
moderation of alcohol intake. Members believed alcohol abuse was the
root cause of most of the social problems in Victorian Britain.Cook later recalled from that walk: “The thought suddenly flashed across my mind as to the practicability of employing the great powers of railways and locomotion for the furtherance of this social reform.”
Upon reaching his meeting, Cook suggested to the members that for their next get-together, which was 12 miles away in the town of Loughborough, he charter a train to get them there and back, and provide everyone’s lunch, too. The idea was met with great approval, so Cook negotiated a deal with Midland Counties Railway Company. Each passenger would be charged a shilling for return tickets and food, and Cook would receive a percentage of the total figure made.
Portrait of Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook head offices at Ludgate Circus, London
1888 Thomas Cook Handbook
Thomas Cook was happy because for arranging the excursion he received a share of the profits. And the passengers were happy because they didn’t have to go to the bother of organising their journeys. Or lunch. Everything was taken care of in one handy package.
Cook could never have known it, but the thought that flashed across his mind on that summer’s day in 1841 planted the seed for what is today the world’s fastest growing industry, one which sees more than a billion people cross international borders every year, and one which is worth more than a trillion dollars to the global economy: tourism.
Buoyed by the success of that initial outing, Cook continued for the next few years to organise similar excursions, in the process inadvertently becoming the world’s first travel agent. It wasn’t long before he saw the potential for leisure travel and started putting together tours of Scotland, and then eventually overseas trips to Europe, Egypt and the States.
Thomas Cook coach
Thomas Cook tour party
Thomas Cook died in 1892 and his sons and grandsons continued to run the family business, which by the turn of the twentieth century had offices in Australia and New Zealand and had organised over 3 million trips.
And that was just the beginning.
Titanic Ships
Steaming the Seas
Transport to travel is what armies are to conquest: the better the former the easier the latter.
The introduction of railways marked an enormous leap forward in facilitating mass transit but it wasn't the only invention to emerge from the fires of the Industrial Revolution.
Hot on the heels of the new locomotives were enormous ships capable of carrying people en masse across oceans in relative comfort for the first time in history. Unlike their predecessors these ships were made from steel, not wood, and powered by steam, not wind.
The American-built SS Savannah is often cited as the first steamship to make a transatlantic crossing, from Georgia to Liverpool in 1819, but this is a slightly misleading accolade. The ship was a hybrid of a sailing ship and steamship, and it only actually used steam propulsion for a tiny portion of the trip. Furthermore, during the historic crossing, the ship was completely devoid of passengers: so novel was the new design that people simply mistrusted it and not a single ticket was sold.
The most important thing was that a regularly scheduled transatlantic crossing was fast becoming a reality; the Old and New Worlds were being connected on a scale that just a century earlier would have been unimaginable.
One of the most famous – or infamous – ships of this age was the aptly named RMS Titanic, the colossal passenger liner which struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic in 1912 on her maiden voyage to America, and crashed onto the ocean floor soon after. More than two thirds of the 2,224 souls on board perished in the freezing waters.
The Titanic, like many of the great ships of the time, was more than just a vessel: it symbolised a new life in a new world. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw millions of people from Europe emigrate to the United States – the New World – in search of a better life, something that became known as the American Dream.
The introduction of railways marked an enormous leap forward in facilitating mass transit but it wasn't the only invention to emerge from the fires of the Industrial Revolution.
Hot on the heels of the new locomotives were enormous ships capable of carrying people en masse across oceans in relative comfort for the first time in history. Unlike their predecessors these ships were made from steel, not wood, and powered by steam, not wind.
The American-built SS Savannah is often cited as the first steamship to make a transatlantic crossing, from Georgia to Liverpool in 1819, but this is a slightly misleading accolade. The ship was a hybrid of a sailing ship and steamship, and it only actually used steam propulsion for a tiny portion of the trip. Furthermore, during the historic crossing, the ship was completely devoid of passengers: so novel was the new design that people simply mistrusted it and not a single ticket was sold.
Interior view of a steamship
Still, the scene was set and with constantly improving technology
it would only be a matter of time before steam-powered engines replaced
sails universally.The most important thing was that a regularly scheduled transatlantic crossing was fast becoming a reality; the Old and New Worlds were being connected on a scale that just a century earlier would have been unimaginable.
One of the most famous – or infamous – ships of this age was the aptly named RMS Titanic, the colossal passenger liner which struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic in 1912 on her maiden voyage to America, and crashed onto the ocean floor soon after. More than two thirds of the 2,224 souls on board perished in the freezing waters.
The Titanic, like many of the great ships of the time, was more than just a vessel: it symbolised a new life in a new world. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw millions of people from Europe emigrate to the United States – the New World – in search of a better life, something that became known as the American Dream.
Soaring the Skies
A New Era of Travel Takes Off
The Wright Bros. in 1876
The father threw the toy into the air and, speaking many years later, the brothers recalled: “Instead of falling to the floor, as we expected, it flew across the room till it struck the ceiling, where it fluttered awhile, and finally sank to the floor.”
Orville and Wilbur – better known today as the Wright Brothers – were utterly entranced by this thing. They played with the toy relentlessly and when it broke, instead of pestering their father for a replacement they just built a new one.
The boys turned into men and as they grew bigger and stronger so did their homemade toys, and a week before Christmas Day in 1903 they completed the first ever heavier-than-air human flight in their newly invented flying machine. It lasted 12 seconds, reached an altitude of ten feet and covered a distance of 37 metres.
De Havilland Comet Aircraft
The larger bombers were converted into commercial aircraft, which
started a whole new industry, and soon planes for the first time were
being built solely to transport passengers en masse.The first was the de Havilland DH 106 Comet, which was developed in Hertfordshire in the UK, and launched its commercial service in 1952. Alas, the design was flawed, and after several planes breaking up mid-flight the service was retracted.
1950s air hostesses
When the war ended Boeing turned its attention to passenger aircraft and in 1958, barely half a century since the Wright Brothers’ first tentative flight, launched its 707 model. One of the routes the new jet flew was New York to London, and 1958 was the first year that more passengers travelled to and from America by air than by ship.
A new era of travel had begun. Our era.
Young backpackers from Europe and America began travelling
overland from Europe to the Indian subcontinent on what quickly became
known as the Hippy Trail.
Most began in London or Amsterdam, travelled east via Greece to Turkey, continued through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, before ending up in Goa, India or Kathmandu, Nepal, and in some cases, right down to Thailand.
Some were seeking spiritual enlightenment, some were keen to sample as much hashish as possible, some simply wanted an adventure, but all had one thing in common: a desire to be on the move for as long and as cheaply as possible.
Due to its cost, flying was out the question, so the only option
was to travel overland. Companies quickly sprung up to cater for these
young intrepids.
One of these companies was started by a young Australian called Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner, who while working in the northeast of England purchased an old double decker bus and decided to drive to Morocco in it – as you do. The seats quickly sold and off they went. Turner would go on to drive all the way to Kathmandu, and his first company, Top Deck Travel, was born. The young entrepreneur went on to form Flight Centre, which today is one of the world’s biggest and most successful travel companies.
Although the steadily dropping price of flying meant many began to opt for that form of transport, overland journeys remained popular, and other companies sprung up in the wake of Top Deck, including Dragoman in 1981 and Oasis Overland in 1997.
Most began in London or Amsterdam, travelled east via Greece to Turkey, continued through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, before ending up in Goa, India or Kathmandu, Nepal, and in some cases, right down to Thailand.
Some were seeking spiritual enlightenment, some were keen to sample as much hashish as possible, some simply wanted an adventure, but all had one thing in common: a desire to be on the move for as long and as cheaply as possible.
Hippies in Thailand
Travelling the hippie trail
One of these companies was started by a young Australian called Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner, who while working in the northeast of England purchased an old double decker bus and decided to drive to Morocco in it – as you do. The seats quickly sold and off they went. Turner would go on to drive all the way to Kathmandu, and his first company, Top Deck Travel, was born. The young entrepreneur went on to form Flight Centre, which today is one of the world’s biggest and most successful travel companies.
Although the steadily dropping price of flying meant many began to opt for that form of transport, overland journeys remained popular, and other companies sprung up in the wake of Top Deck, including Dragoman in 1981 and Oasis Overland in 1997.
Early Dragoman bus tour
Tony & Maureen Wheeler
They called their guide Asia on the Cheap, and it would be the first book published under the newly-formed Lonely Planet, which today is the largest travel guide publisher in the world.
Travel guide books remain an essential item for many travellers on the road, but with the digital age there had to be an online space for backpackers, too.
The first to realise this were Tom Griffiths and Peter Pedrick, and in 1998 they founded gapyear.com, the same website on which you read this history. For the first time there was a platform that not only gave essential advice for those planning a gap year, but also provided a place for backpackers to connect with each other digitally.
Pushing the Boundaries
There are many limits within our world, but one thing which knows no bounds is our collective curiosity.Our destiny as a race is to explore, to travel, to turn over every rock in our universe. The great voyages of the Age of Discovery marked a golden age for travel, and inspired the confidence needed to keep going.
The world had begun to take shape on our maps and in our minds, but enormous blank spaces remained. Victorian explorers like David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley delved into the wild, uncharted heart of the African continent, while explorers like Robert Burke and William Wills traipsed across the burnt, bewildering vastness of the Australian Outback.
Portrait of David Livingstone
Portrait of William Wills
Portrait of Charles Darwin
The last century has seen the world’s attention drawn towards the extremities of the planet; the deepest oceans, the highest mountains, the bitter polar regions. And eventually beyond our watery little world, into Space itself.
The polar regions of our planet caught the attention of explorers
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a period when navigational
and transport aids were becoming sophisticated enough to offer a glimmer
of a chance against the ferociously harsh elements that characterise
the North and South poles.
Since as early as the 1500s explorers had been trying to discover
the Northwest Passage, a sea route which linked the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans via the Arctic Ocean, but it wouldn’t be until 1903 that a
Norwegian called Roald Amundsen was able to fully navigate the
treacherous route.
Amundsen was prolific. His Northwest Passage expedition alone was enough to secure him legendary status as an explorer, but incredibly he would also go on to be the first man to reach both the South Pole, in 1911, and the North Pole, in 1926.
Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole, 1911
Amundsen was prolific. His Northwest Passage expedition alone was enough to secure him legendary status as an explorer, but incredibly he would also go on to be the first man to reach both the South Pole, in 1911, and the North Pole, in 1926.
Portrait of Roald Amundsen
History rarely remembers those who came second, but a special
mention should be afforded for Robert Falcon Scott, a British explorer
who led an expedition which was trying to reach the South Pole before
Amundsen.When they arrived on 17 January, 1912, they discovered to their crushing dismay Amundsen’s team had won the race by 34 days and already departed.
Scott and his men began the gruelling return journey but were never seen alive again: their frozen, emaciated bodies were discovered in a tent ten months later.
Robert Falcon Scott in his Cape Evans hut, 1911
Amazingly, almost half a century would pass before humans once
again reached the South Pole overland, an achievement which came in the
form of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. One of the members
of this team was one Edmund Hillary, who had secured his place in world
history five years before when he summited a certain mountain in the
Himalayas.The group, which comprised a team of New Zealanders, led by Hillary, and British, led by Dr Vivian Fuchs, not only reached the South Pole, but also became the first to traverse the continent of Antarctica overland. This accomplishment would not be repeated until 1981, when Ranulph Fiennes and his Transglobe Expedition became the first to make an overland circumpolar navigation of the planet.
The conditions at the top of Everest, the highest mountain in the
world, read like a weather forecast from an alien planet: 200mph winds,
brutally cold temperatures, a disquieting deficiency of breathable
oxygen.
In 1953 Edmund Hillary became the first man to summit the peak, along with Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
Unlike many of the great explorers discussed in this history of travel, Hillary wasn’t in search of trading routes, religious sites, a new place to live, fame and fortune, conquest or science; he simply climbed it because it was there. Which is as good a reason as any.
He would later say: “If someone starts out on a challenging
activity, completely confident they’re going to succeed, why bother
starting? It’s not much of a challenge.”
Hillary certainly had no guarantees of success, and few could deny the enormity of his challenge. Although his climbing gear was clearly adequate for him, it was thoroughly rudimentary compared to today’s standard of equipment. Even now, for every 10 people who successfully summit Everest, one person dies.
What makes Everest so incredibly dangerous is not so much the mountain itself – technically speaking, the terrain is fairly straightforward for experienced mountaineers – rather the extreme conditions in which its peak resides.
The portion of the mountain which is over 8,000 metres high is known as the Death Zone, due to the extreme temperatures and lack of breathable oxygen. This is so debilitating on the human body that the final mile to the summit usually takes climbers – typically people at the very peak of physical fitness – anything up to 12 hours to trudge. Frozen corpses are an eerily common sight in the Death Zone of Mount Everest.
In 1953 Edmund Hillary became the first man to summit the peak, along with Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
Unlike many of the great explorers discussed in this history of travel, Hillary wasn’t in search of trading routes, religious sites, a new place to live, fame and fortune, conquest or science; he simply climbed it because it was there. Which is as good a reason as any.
Mount Everest
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
Hillary certainly had no guarantees of success, and few could deny the enormity of his challenge. Although his climbing gear was clearly adequate for him, it was thoroughly rudimentary compared to today’s standard of equipment. Even now, for every 10 people who successfully summit Everest, one person dies.
What makes Everest so incredibly dangerous is not so much the mountain itself – technically speaking, the terrain is fairly straightforward for experienced mountaineers – rather the extreme conditions in which its peak resides.
The portion of the mountain which is over 8,000 metres high is known as the Death Zone, due to the extreme temperatures and lack of breathable oxygen. This is so debilitating on the human body that the final mile to the summit usually takes climbers – typically people at the very peak of physical fitness – anything up to 12 hours to trudge. Frozen corpses are an eerily common sight in the Death Zone of Mount Everest.
The deepest ocean on our planet is the Pacific, and the deepest
part of the deepest ocean is the Mariana Trench, the floor of which sits
almost seven miles beneath the surface. For context, that’s about the
same distance a commercial airliner at maximum cruising altitude flies
from the ground. More than 6,500 ft higher than Mount Everest.
The first people to fully descend into the abyss – all 35,797 ft of it – were Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh on 23 January, 1960. Piccard was a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, and Walsh was a US Navy Lieutenant.
The bravery of Piccard and Walsh can scarcely be emphasised
enough. The deepest point of the deepest ocean is – as far as humans are
concerned – one of the most inhospitable places on our planet.
The weight of the water at that depth is scarcely comprehendible: for every square inch there are eight tons of pressure. If their submarine – it was called the Trieste – were to succumb to the immense forces bearing down upon it, the result would have been catastrophic.
At the 30,000 feet mark, one of the outer window panes on the vessel cracked, causing the vessel to shudder violently. This meant there was just a single pane of glass between the men and instant death thought, unaware of the damage, they decided to press on and continue their descent regardless.
Almost five hours after beginning their journey, Piccard and Walsh touched down on the primordial ooze that covers the floor of the Mariana Trench. Once there, they discovered the crack in the outer window pane, which meant they only spent 20 minutes at the bottom before heading back up.
Amazingly, before this feat, not even an unmanned vessel had reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. When asked many years later why he didn’t just send a robot down there, Don Walsh said: “You gotta be there because that’s what we do.”
The first people to fully descend into the abyss – all 35,797 ft of it – were Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh on 23 January, 1960. Piccard was a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, and Walsh was a US Navy Lieutenant.
Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh in their submersible
The weight of the water at that depth is scarcely comprehendible: for every square inch there are eight tons of pressure. If their submarine – it was called the Trieste – were to succumb to the immense forces bearing down upon it, the result would have been catastrophic.
At the 30,000 feet mark, one of the outer window panes on the vessel cracked, causing the vessel to shudder violently. This meant there was just a single pane of glass between the men and instant death thought, unaware of the damage, they decided to press on and continue their descent regardless.
Almost five hours after beginning their journey, Piccard and Walsh touched down on the primordial ooze that covers the floor of the Mariana Trench. Once there, they discovered the crack in the outer window pane, which meant they only spent 20 minutes at the bottom before heading back up.
Amazingly, before this feat, not even an unmanned vessel had reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench. When asked many years later why he didn’t just send a robot down there, Don Walsh said: “You gotta be there because that’s what we do.”
And so to space, where with a big bang it all began.
Try to imagine the almost infinite nature of space and your mind will probably begin to flounder. Perhaps this is because everything on Earth, everything we have ever known, is finite, and our brains simply cannot comprehend anything but.
All life is finite, be it the life coursing through the wings of a gnat, the roots of a great oak or the arteries of a human heart. All inanimate objects are finite, even mountains, which rise and fall like great waves on the sea of time.
The Earth itself is finite: it once didn’t exist and there will be a time when it once more ceases to exist.
All travel on Earth is finite, too, owing to the very spherical
nature of our little marble: move in any direction for long enough and
you will eventually end up back where you started.
It took a long time, many thousands of years, to explore the lump of rock upon which we live, to find its limits, and our own in the process, but that is just the beginning of the history of travel.
The next age of discovery, an age which has already begun, will take place in space, and like space, will not be finite, but infinite.
Try to imagine the almost infinite nature of space and your mind will probably begin to flounder. Perhaps this is because everything on Earth, everything we have ever known, is finite, and our brains simply cannot comprehend anything but.
All life is finite, be it the life coursing through the wings of a gnat, the roots of a great oak or the arteries of a human heart. All inanimate objects are finite, even mountains, which rise and fall like great waves on the sea of time.
The Earth itself is finite: it once didn’t exist and there will be a time when it once more ceases to exist.
The Blue Marble, 1972
It took a long time, many thousands of years, to explore the lump of rock upon which we live, to find its limits, and our own in the process, but that is just the beginning of the history of travel.
The next age of discovery, an age which has already begun, will take place in space, and like space, will not be finite, but infinite.
V-2 Rocket Launch
Tentative steps have been taken in the last few decades and, in a
similar vein of irony to plane technology, some of the greatest creative
advances have been inspired by the destructive urges spawned by war,
both literal, in the case of World War 2, and ideological, in the case
of the Cold War.In 1942, at the height of the Second World War, Germany launched a successful test flight of the world’s first ballistic missile. It was called the V-2 rocket and, apart from being devastatingly destructive, these missiles were famous for being the first objects created by man to reach space. To the enduring dismay of the Allies, they would depart back to Earth soon after. But a technogical milestone had been achieved.
The Forefathers of Space Travel
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Wernher von Braun
One of the key architects behind the V-2’s technology was a man called Wernher von Braun; he was at the centre of the Nazi’s rocket development program. Germany was defeated in 1945 and, in what became known as Operation Paperclip – an effort by the USA to gather the greatest minds in Europe, regardless of wartime allegiance – Braun was assimilated into the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The poached scientist would go on to lead the team which developed the Saturn V launch vehicle, which would provide the immense thrust needed to put a man on the moon. -
Sergei Korolev
Sergei Korolev was Wernher von Braun’s Russian counterpart: he headed up the Soviet Space program and is considered one of the fathers of astronautics. Korolev had such a brilliant mind and was so instrumental for so much of the Soviets’ success in space that in his lifetime he was known simply as “The Chief Designer”. The Soviets’ reluctance to publically identify their star rocket scientist stemmed from a (probably perfectly reasonable) fear that the Americans would send assassins to kill him. It wasn’t until after Korolev’s death in 1966 that he was acknowledged and given the credit he was due.
US cut-away of the V-2
Even in an age when technology seems to advance at approximately
the same speed as light, the idea of a human kicking up clouds of dust
on the moon is still scarcely plausible. Perhaps this is because almost
half a century has passed since the last moon landing (there have been
six, though we only ever hear about one) or perhaps it’s because it
really was such a giant leap for mankind.Neil Armstrong, as you no doubt know, was the man who, while taking a small step, coined that phrase. The pressure of saying something clever to the world’s population at the precise moment of summiting the pinnacle of human achievement must have been immense.
The year was 1969, and the Cold War – the struggle for ideological
supremacy between the USA and USSR, the super powers of the world – was
in a state of permafrost.
Since the end of the Second World War a deep mistrust had grown like a cancer between the two nations, and they became embroiled in an endless game of one-upmanship, which had implications – potentially disastrous – for the entire planet. Though they inadvertently fought one another on foreign battle grounds, this war was mostly psychological; a battle of ideas and minds which often manifested itself in technological breakthroughs, and nowhere was this more pronounced than in space exploration.
Until the 1969 moon landing, the Soviets had pipped the Americans
to the post for most of the major milestones, leading the way in a space
race they later claimed not to be part of.
In 1957 they launched Sputnik 1, which became the first ever satellite to orbit the Earth. Later that year they launched the first animal into orbit – Laika the dog – on board Sputnik 2.
In 1959 they launched Luna 2, which became the first manmade
object to land on (or, to be more accurate, crash into) the moon. In
1961 the Soviets achieved the first human spaceflight; Yuri Gagarin
orbited the Earth and returned safely, and a national hero. He was
followed in 1963 by Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, and
in 1965 Alexey Leonov would become the first human to exit a spacecraft
and conduct a spacewalk. He was to be the first of many.
Since the end of the Second World War a deep mistrust had grown like a cancer between the two nations, and they became embroiled in an endless game of one-upmanship, which had implications – potentially disastrous – for the entire planet. Though they inadvertently fought one another on foreign battle grounds, this war was mostly psychological; a battle of ideas and minds which often manifested itself in technological breakthroughs, and nowhere was this more pronounced than in space exploration.
Laika
In 1957 they launched Sputnik 1, which became the first ever satellite to orbit the Earth. Later that year they launched the first animal into orbit – Laika the dog – on board Sputnik 2.
Yuri Gagarin
Valentina Tereshkova
US astronaut Bruce McCandless on a spacewalk
After the USA had seized the ultimate prize – a man on the moon –
the Space Race quickly declined, and the major exploratory advances in
the last few decades have been made by robots.There are many manmade probes cruising through space as you read this, but by far the farthest is NASA's Voyager 1 space probe.
The planning and preparation of Voyager 1
The first Voyager probe was launched by the USA in 1977 and
certainly lives up to its name: at the time of writing it is
approximately 12 billion miles from the Sun, yet it has barely left the
starting blocks on its vast journey to explore other star systems.After 40,000 years of travelling through interstellar space, it will pass close to it's first star, Gliese 445, before continuing on it's epic journey through the Milky Way galaxy, at a speed of around 17 kilometers a second.
The Pale Blue Dot
The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Planet Earth, taken by
Voyager 1, from 3.7 billion miles away, through the rings of Saturn, at
the request of Carl Sagan. He reflected:That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Diagram showing humanity's active space probes
A little closer to home – 350,000,000 miles, to be approximate –
the Mars rover Curiosity has been diligently scouting out the Red
Planet, which in all likelihood will one day be inhabited by humans
(providing the species doesn’t obliterate itself first, of course), or
at least play host to an intergalactic service station.
NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover Takes a Selfie
Most recently, the European Space Agency's extraordinary Rosetta
mission saw a spacecraft land on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko,
which is hurtling through space at 24,600 miles an hour. Mission manager
Dr Fred Jansen described the final stage of the multi-million-mile
journey as the equivalent of transferring one object from a speeding
bullet to another.The ESA mission is aptly named after the Rosetta Stone, an enormous, engraved slab of rock, and one of the greatest archaeological treasures ever discovered: it effectively translated what had been undecipherable Egyptian hieroglyphs, in the process completely revolutionising our understanding of the past.
ESA Mission Control in Darmstadt, Germany
Artist's impression of the Philae landing
It is hoped that the Rosetta mission will provide something
similar, except on a much grander scale. It is assumed that a comet
probably provided Earth with its water, and possibly seeded life itself,
meaning the information gained from the mission could answer the
greatest mystery we have ever faced: the very nature of our existence.Until now, space travel has only been available to trained astronauts. The next few decades, however, will see more and more people, beginning with the super-rich and gradually trickling down to the everyman, experience what it is to travel above the Earth’s atmosphere. One company striving to achieve this is Virgin Galactic, whose purpose is to “become the spaceline for Earth, democratising access to space for the benefit of life on Earth.”
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