Place
Representative southwest-coast landfall on maritime routes between Southeast Asia, India, and the Persian Gulf.
July 1405–October 1407
Commissioned by the Yongle emperor, a large Ming fleet under Zheng He sailed through established South and Southeast Asian maritime networks to Calicut, exchanging envoys and gifts, conducting trade, and asserting imperial authority before returning to China.
1271–1295
Marco Polo travelled with his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo from Venice through the eastern Mediterranean, Iran, Central Asia, and the Mongol-ruled Silk Road networks to Kublai Khan’s court. Years later, the Polos accompanied Kököchin’s maritime escort from China toward Persia and continued home to Venice.
14 June 1325–1354
The Moroccan jurist Ibn Battuta left Tangier for the pilgrimage to Mecca and continued through interconnected scholarly, courtly, pilgrimage, and commercial networks across Africa and Eurasia. His journeys took him through the Middle East, East Africa, Central and South Asia, the Maldives, Southeast Asia, and China before later travels in al-Andalus and the Mali Empire.
399–412
The Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian travelled overland through Central Asia into northern India in search of authoritative monastic texts, studied at major Buddhist centres, and returned to China by merchant ships through Sri Lanka and Java.