The first section I always browse in the bookstore or library is the travel narratives section. I can't see myself ever venturing into the jungle or climbing Mount Everest, but I love to read about adventurers who felt compelled to seek out the most distant corners of the planet.
The Seventy Great Journeys in History is exactly the kind of travel book I like best. It is an excellent introduction to some of history's most famous travelers, such as Herodotus, Marco Polo, Genghis Kahn, and Christopher Columbus, as well as some who might not be as well known. The book begins with the travels of the first Homo sapiens from Africa about 50,000 years ago, and ends with the continuing explorations of space and our universe. In between are dozens of amazing adventures to every conceivable place in the world, such as the Chinese admiral Zheng He who made seven epic journeys from Taiwan to Africa in the early 1400s, and Gertrude Bell, who explored the deserts of Western Asia in 1913.
This anthology does not pretend to give a detailed account of every traveler. It is a good place to begin, and then the reader can choose to read further about those travelers they have found especially interesting. It is a wonderful overview, and even for a reader who is familiar with a vast number of travelers, there are new and previously unknown travelers' stories. It is also illustrated with excellent full-color photographs, artwork, and maps that augment the text and fascinate the reader.
This format has been used successfully in several companion volumes, including The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World, The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World, and The Seventy Great Battles of All Time. They all serve as a good starting point before more in-depth study, or an entertaining glimpse into the subject for those who don't need or want to read any more widely.
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