Bargain Breaks

Famous Travelers And Their Travel Account

When we speak about the ancient travel, we say that they traveled for trade and commerce or religious purposes. Some of them were traveling for knowledge quest. Some of the famous travelers are:

FA HSIEN (FA XIAN)
HSUAN TSANG
BENHAMIN OF TUDELA
IBN BATUTAH
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE
MARCO POLO
BARTHALOMEO DIAS
FERDINAND MAGELLAN

FA HSIEN : He was a Chinese traveler .he traveled during the period 414 to 399 BC. His travel was by foot and he is the first known traveler. He crossed the Taklimakan desert and sailed back to china. He translated many Buddhist books to Chinese dialects.

HSUAN TSANG : He traveled between 645-629BC.His intention was to find the socio economic scenario concentrating more in Asian countries. His travel account has become a good source for a famous Chinese novel “Journey To The West” in Chinese language. His name is “Wu Cheng'en.”

BENJAMIN OF TUDELA : He was a Jewish scholar. He left Sargasso (Spain) in the year 1160.His main intension was to study about Jews. He traveled through Asia, Africa, and India and to Persia and all together he traveled for 13 years.

IBN BATUTAH: His origin is from Tangier (Morocco). His full name is Shams Al Din Abu Abd Mohammed Ibn Batutah. He started his journey when he was 20 years old and lasted for 30 years. The history says that his main intention was to go for Hajj. He traveled 75000km passing various countries like Africa, west Asia etc.

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE (1540-1596) : His greatest accomplishment was the second navigation of the globe from 1517-1580. Initially he was not an explorer but he was a pirate born in Devon shire (England) in 1540.

MARCO POLO : He was an Italian traveler and started his journey when he was 17 years old. He was born in Venice (1271). The name of his book is “My books of travel “ and that was a motivation for other travelers in Renaissance and Middle Ages.

BARTHOLOMEO DIAS : He was a Portuguese traveler .He was the first to discover the CAPE OF GOOD HOPE (South America) and to find a new way to China. He traveled around 1400 miles by starting his journey with 2 ships.

FERDINAND MAGELLAN : His greatest achievement was the first circum navigation of the globe. He started his journey in 1518 from Spain. He sailed with five ships namely Trinidad, Santiago, Victoria, Conception and Antonio. All other ships except Victoria could not get back to Spain. Hence Victoria was the first ship to circum navigate the globe.

All these famous travelers used their own modes of transportation. Some sailed, some traveled by foot and many other modes of transportation. It should also be noted that during summer these travelers traveled in the night.