A scientist who has traveled across Asia for 24 years. European travelers to Asia of the 8th-15th centuries

08.02.2016 13:00

There are countries where our tourists began to travel more often than before. Thailand, Vietnam, India, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Sri Lanka, China - it was they who accepted most of those who did not deny themselves a winter vacation by the warm sea. And here are tips for everyone who is just planning it.

To Thailand: douche with water and watch bulls

Despite domestic political problems, Thailand has managed to achieve a record growth in tourist flow: in 2015, this country was visited by more than 29 million visitors. By the way, a citizen of Russia became the 29 millionth tourist. As a prize, she received an open-ended air ticket, a five-night voucher in one of Bangkok's luxury hotels and a mobile phone.

According to the Tourism Administration of Thailand, more than half of the Russian guests have already rested in this country and returned again. That is why the management hopes that tourists will want to see its different corners and pay attention to the calendar of Thai holidays. Among the most colorful, for example, is the Thai New Year (Songkran). It is celebrated especially vigorously in Chiang Mai (in 2016 it will take place on April 12), when on the streets everyone massively doused each other with water to wash away sins. The buffalo festival 60 km from Pattaya is also curious, the main event of which is the race of local farmers on bareback bulls (dates of which are October 14-16).

To Japan: travel the country for free
and touch the miracle

While European airlines are cutting flights to Russia, some Asian ones are increasing. Japan Airlines (JAL) announced such plans. Now the Japanese fly to Moscow three times a week, from March 26 they intend to make four weekly flights, and from the summer - all five. Moreover, to encourage Russians to travel to Japan, the airline will provide them with a wonderful bonus - a free flight from Tokyo and back to one of 33 cities in the country. The main thing is to book domestic flights at the same time as international ones. And that's not all! If you want to visit more than one region, you will be offered a national air ticket. You can visit five cities on it, and each flight will cost about 80 euros. Full information on all special offers can be obtained from the Moscow office of JAL.

A lot of interesting things await travelers in Japan this year. Traditionally, the two most popular periods among our tourists are the sakura season (April - May) and the maple season (September - October). During this time, there are many folk festivals associated with religious rituals or historical events, as well as with rice planting or harvesting. For example, in May, Tokyo hosts the Sanja Matsuri festival. It originated in the 7th century, when the Sensoji Buddhist Temple was built here. A whole story full of miracles is connected with his appearance. Every year it comes to life during the holiday in the form of performances.

In the early days of October, tourists are attracted by the vibrant harvest festival in Kyoto. It is called Kitano Tenmangu, like one of the city's temples, and is famous for its beautiful rituals. In early August, Akito hosts the Lantern Festival (Kato Matsuri). Several teams of local people compete to make paper lanterns of various shapes and then launch them into the sky. In general, in Japan, in addition to folklore, there are 15 more official national holidays. And this is not only the Foundation Day (February 11) or Constitution Day (May 3), but also Greenery Day (May 4), Culture Day (November 3) or Sea Day (the third Monday in July). Since 2016, Mountain Day will also be celebrated, and you have every chance to celebrate it for the first time on August 11 with the Japanese.

To China: swim in a hot spring
and look into the gorge of butterflies

China also has big plans for the Russians. In this country, they are primarily aimed at returning our tourists to the island of Hainan, from where they almost disappeared last year due to the bankruptcy of Transaero Airlines and the cancellation of direct flights. Recently, a Russian-Chinese investment project for 3 billion rubles was presented in Moscow. It will be implemented with the support of the PRC government. As part of this project, charter flights from Moscow Vnukovo airport to Phoenix airport in Sanya, Hainan, will begin on March 3. Tour operator "Rus-Tour", one of the initiators of the resumption of flights, announced that a tour package to Hainan, including air tickets, will cost from 35,000 rubles.

Moreover, Hainan, according to the organizers of the tours, can become a full-fledged replacement for Turkish resorts. At least in terms of prices, they are quite comparable. Moreover, in this region there are no less ancient attractions and nature reserves. These are hot springs, the Li and Miao ethnic village, the Heavenly Grottoes Taoist Park, the Monkey Island, the Butterfly Gorge, the Shell Museum, and the Shark Factory, and, of course, the largest Buddhist center in Southeast Asia Nanshan. According to the general director of the Chinese tour operator Sanya Holiday, Wang Hai Tang, the project will help to receive more than 20,000 tourists from Russia in Hainan this year. All local hotels have Russian-speaking staff; almost all excursions are conducted in Russian.

To Singapore: eat delicious food and say hello to the dragon

In 2015, there were significantly fewer Russian tourists not only in Japan and Hainan, but also in Singapore. The republic has just celebrated its 50th anniversary magnificently and is ready to actively develop tourism. It is rightfully ranked among the most modern, beautiful and prosperous countries in Asia. A high standard of living also presupposes a corresponding level of prices. So, this country does not pretend to the stormy flows of Russians who have lost their cheap Turkish and Egyptian resorts. But it can offer a lot of interesting things to those who make business trips. Stunning cleanliness (a $ 500 fine is imposed on a thrown cigarette butt), the beauty of the lines of modern architecture, ancient temples full of not only greenery, but also lots of technical wonders, parks, amazing museums - this is what Singapore is famous for.

One of the most colorful annual events here will take place on February 19-20. Chingai parade once arose as a protest against the ban imposed by the authorities on firecrackers and pyrotechnics, without which the local Chinese simply could not imagine the New Year holidays. Then the outraged citizens gathered and marched through the city streets in costumes of lions, dragons and other figures from Chinese mythology. The procession was so beautiful and bright that it soon became a tradition. Now more than 10,000 people take part in it, and a procession is organized on the territory of the Formula 1 stadium, so you can watch it at the same time.

Gourmets who are not particularly strapped for money should come to Singapore at the end of March. From the 24th to the 27th, the famous gastronomic festival Savor ("Taste") will take place here. The best chefs of the country will conduct tastings and master classes, where you can learn how to cook the most delicious dishes according to their recipes. And 20 of the most reputable restaurants offer special menus during the days of the festival, costing from 70 Singapore dollars.

To the Maldives: to become happy and sunbathe

The Maldives is also difficult to rank among budget destinations. However, the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic is determined to give a chance to visit the country not only to wealthy people, therefore it is launching the campaign "365 days of vacation in the Maldives for free." Applicants will have to fill out a detailed questionnaire, and then describe in detail and color how they will praise their vacation in oral conversations with friends and on social networks. But they won't even have to embellish anything! Maldives is a true paradise on earth, about which, by the way, FP.

The task of the participants of the future competition is to find in advance a lot of warm, but what is there - hot words that will touch the soul of the employees of the Ministry of Tourism so much that they will single out one of the cherished tours to their author. In general, if you want to try your luck, follow the Maldivian news.

To Africa: wave to the zebra
and look into the eyes of the lion

Africa is also actively conquering the world tourism market. In Kenya, tourism development is overseen by President Uhuru Kenyatta. He recently publicly announced the liberalization of tariffs for visiting national parks. There are more than fifty of these parks in the country, and many can boast of the "Big Five", that is, there are leopards, elephants, lions, rhinos and buffaloes. Kenya is not yet ready, like Canada, to completely abandon the sale of entrance tickets and let tourists into their national parks, as they say, for their beautiful eyes. However, it was decided not to levy VAT on park taxes and prohibit the administrations of these places from charging tourists more than $ 60 for an entrance ticket.

For wildlife lovers, the best time to visit Kenya is July and August. It is during these months that you can see a fantastic sight: millions of zebras and wildebeests migrate from the Serengeti to Masai Mara. Given the massive interest in this spectacle among tourists from all over the world, it is worth booking a trip several months in advance.

To Israel: swim in three seas
and listen to music

One of the first geographical maps was compiled by the ancient Greek scientist Hecateus (VI-V centuries BC). How different it was from modern maps! Europe, Asia and Africa (it was then called Libya) looked completely different on it, and there were no other continents and parts of the world at all. In those distant times, people still did not know much about the appearance of the Earth.

It took humanity centuries to find out what our planet really looks like. These centuries were marked by a series of remarkable geographical discoveries. We will tell you about those of them, thanks to which new continents and parts of the world appeared on the map.

Discovery of America

This part of the world was discovered, one might say, by mistake. In the XV century. many European travelers were attracted by the distant countries of Asia, primarily India and China, which were famous for their innumerable riches. But the journey to Asia was very long - you had to sail around Africa. An Italian from Genoa Christopher Columbus (1451 - 1506) decided to find a shorter way. He was convinced that the Earth was spherical, and therefore Asia could be reached by sailing from Europe to the west. On August 3, 1492, Columbus with his crew (about 100 people) sailed from Spain on three ships. On October 12, 1492, a sailor of one of the ships saw the land. Soon Columbus landed ashore. He believed that he had reached India, and therefore called the locals he met here Indians. The discovered land turned out to be a small island.

Columbus continued his journey and discovered several more islands, including Cuba. In the spring of 1493 he returned to Spain, and in the following years he made three more trips to the same places. However, until the end of his days, the great navigator did not find out that he did not reach Asia, but discovered a new part of the world - America. October 12, 1492 is considered the day of the discovery of America.

Discovery of Australia

For centuries, it was believed that in the far south there was a huge mainland inhabited by people and rich in gold, diamonds and pearls. And although this continent has never been seen, it was mapped and called the Unknown Southern Land. Many sailors were busy searching for the legendary mainland. And when in the XVI century. managed to discover New Guinea, geographers considered this huge island the protrusion of the Unknown Southern Land. The modern map clearly shows that Australia is just a stone's throw from New Guinea. The first to reach this mainland was the Dutch navigator Willem Janszon in 1606. He not only landed on the mainland, but also explored its coast for 350 km. At the same time, Janszon thought that he had only been to New Guinea. Like Columbus, he did not know until the end of his life that he had become the discoverer of a new continent. After the Janszon, other Dutch sailors discovered large swaths of Australia's north, west and south coasts.

It is curious that at the same time one of the Dutch captains first discovered and described a kangaroo - an amazing animal with a tiny cub in a bag. The open lands were called New Holland and were considered part of the Unknown South Land. And only after in the XVIII century. the great English traveler James Cook discovered and carefully explored the east coast of Australia, it became clear that this is an independent continent. It was called Australia, which, as you remember, means "southern".

Discovery of Antarctica

In 1820 the Russian navigators Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovered the sixth continent - Antarctica on the sailing ships Vostok and Mirny. Their heroic voyage lasted 751 days. During this time, they came close to the shores of Antarctica 9 times, but the ice did not allow them to land on the mainland.

Only in 1894 did people first set foot on the land of Antarctica. These were the Norwegians Captain L. Christensen and the sailor K. Borchgrevink, who managed to get in a boat through the ice to the shore.

Ten great travelers

Robert Peary (1856-1920)
USA. Polar explorer. In 1909 he was the first to reach the North Pole.

Marco Polo (1254-1324)
Venice. For 24 years he traveled to Asia. From his book Europeans learned about the amazing nature and unprecedented wealth of these countries.

Fernand Magellan (circa 1480-1521)
Portugal. At the head of a Spanish naval expedition he made his first round the world trip. This trip proved the sphericity of our planet and the unity of the World Ocean.

Vasco da Gama (circa 1469-1524)
Portugal. He was the first to pave the sea route to India, taking his ships around Africa.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky (1839-1888)
Russia. Explored hard-to-reach areas of Asia. Mapped over 20 mountain ranges, a number of lakes and rivers.

David Livingston (1813-1873)
England. He explored the hard-to-reach regions of Africa, discovered one of the largest waterfalls - Victoria.

Afanasy Nikitin
Russia. A merchant from Tver. In the XV century. traveled to India, crossing the Caspian, Arabian and Black Seas on the way back and forth. He expressed his impressions in the book "Walking the Three Seas".

Roald Amundsen (1872-1928)
Norway. Polar explorer. In 1911 he was the first to reach the South Pole.

Vitus Bering (1680-1741)
Russia. He explored the northern and eastern shores of our country. He opened the strait between Asia and America (Bering Strait).

Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern (1770-1846)
Russia. He headed the first Russian circumnavigation of the world (1803-1806).

Test your knowledge

1. What parts of the world and continents were known to ancient Greek scientists?
2. How was America discovered?
3. How was Australia discovered?
4. How was Antarctica discovered?

Think!

Follow on the map the routes of the four expeditions of H. Columbus. During which of these expeditions did he visit only the islands, and during which - on the continents of America?

Ancient Greek scientists knew Europe, Asia, Africa (it was called Libya), although their outlines on the maps of that time are still very far from the true ones. America was discovered in 1492 by H. Columbus, who tried to find a shortcut to Asia. The pioneer of Australia was the Dutch navigator V. Janszon, who set foot on this continent in 1606. Antarctica was discovered in 1820 by the Russian navigators FF Bellingshausen and MP Lazarev.

starting from the first crusade, significant groups of Western European Christians came into contact with the Muslim-Christian Levant (Middle East). There, the Crusaders encountered Christians from various Eastern churches. Of course, in the eyes of the crusaders, they were heretics, who were persecuted and massacred in Western Europe. But here in the Middle East, they seemed, and often were, allies of Catholics against Muslims. Therefore, the same popes who called for the organization of crusades against European heretics and blessed their massacres, ordered the leaders of the crusaders in Syria and Palestine to spare the Christians there - followers of heretical beliefs.

Abyssinia, empire of "Tsar-priest Ivan"

The main disseminators of Christianity in the countries of Central and East Asia and informants of Western Europeans about these countries were the Nestorians, mainly Syrian merchants, who in the 7th century. appeared already in Northern China. Groups of Nestorians in the Middle Ages lived in cities and oases of Central Asia, and by the XII century. Nestorian Christianity also spread among at least two large Mongol nomadic tribes: the Naimans in the west and the Kereites in the east. The presence of Christian communities in Asia began to be regarded by Catholic Europe as an important military-political factor when the Muslim peoples - the Seljuk Turks and the Egyptians - launched an offensive against the Catholic states founded by the crusaders in the Eastern Mediterranean.

It was then, in the middle of the 12th century, that a legend about the powerful Christian Tsar-priest Ivan (“Priest John” of the medieval chroniclers) arose in Western Europe. The reason for the emergence of this legend was the defeat of the Karakitai Karakitai are part of the eastern Mongols-Khitan, who left for Turkestan in 1125 after the defeat of the Khitan state of Liao. in 1141, the troops of the Turkaseljuk Sultan Sanjar to the north of Samarkand. After the victory over Sanjar, the Karakitai created the vast state of Karakidan in Turkestan. The news of this event was perceived in the Christian environment as a victory over the Muslims of some powerful Christian "Tsar Ivan". This confusing news was embellished with an additional legend: the victorious Central Asian king in the very first record that came down to us from 1145 was called “the priest-king John”.

In the XIII century. the legend of Tsar-priest Ivan spread widely in Catholic Europe. Everything that was done in Asian countries in favor of Christians or against Muslims was attributed with incredible exaggeration to his power and influence. The fact is that as a result of the Mongol campaigns of conquest, strong Muslim states were defeated in Central and Western Asia. And along with the news of this defeat, which was attributed to "the very priest Ivan, about whose great power the whole world speaks" (Marco Polo), information penetrated into Western Europe that there are Christians among the Mongol khans, that the khans willingly accept Christians into the service, and some have severely persecuted Muslims. And indeed, among the Mongols there were many Nestorian Christians, there were also in the family of Genghis Khan himself, and, moreover, very influential. On the other hand, the crusaders themselves saw Ethiopian Christians in the “holy places” of Palestine and heard from them and their Asian co-religionists about the Christian East African country (Ethiopia). In Western Europe, it also began to be considered the country of Tsar-priest Ivan. The legend of the Tsar-priest in the XIII-XIV centuries. strongly influenced the organization of embassies and missions to the countries of Central and South Asia, and in the 15th century. played a prominent role in the history of Portuguese geographical discoveries.

P Embassy of Karpini and Rubruk

ri Genghis Khan and his successors, the great khans Ogedei and Mongke, the early military-feudal Mongol empire reached dimensions unheard of in human history. As a result of a series of predatory campaigns, the Mongol nobility, who led the squads of their military servants, the nukers, by the middle of the 13th century. conquered North China, Southern China was conquered by the Mongols later, in 1275–1280. Turkestan, Iranian Highlands, Mesopotamia, Transcaucasia and Eastern Europe. The Mongol campaigns were accompanied by a monstrous devastation of the conquered countries and the destruction of their productive forces. Huge war booty fell into the hands of the Mongolian feudal elite. The khans' headquarters, surrounded by feudal lords, became vast markets where it was very profitable to sell jewelry, fabrics, furs, various curiosities and other luxury items. Europeans learned about this and appreciated the benefits of trade with wealthy Mongols, partly from the words of West Asian merchants, partly from the first ambassadors sent to Central Asia by the Pope and the French king.

Trampled into the Eastern Mediterranean by victorious Muslim forces, the Christian rulers of the ephemeral feudal states founded by the Crusaders in the Middle East turned to their Western European patrons, the Pope and Catholic kings, for help. And they viewed the Mongols as their likely allies in the fight against the Muslims. Therefore, in the 40s and 50s. XIII century. missions were sent from Western Europe to the Mongol khans, and in addition to diplomatic and religious assignments, ambassadors were also assigned special intelligence missions. Dad Innocent IV used for this purpose the most educated mendicant monks not long before the organized orders - the Dominican and Franciscan.

Franciscans sent by the Pope Giovanni del Plano Carpini and Benedict Polyak (from Wroclaw) went to the capital of the Mongols Karakorum The city of Khara-Khorin was founded by Genghis Khan on the upper Orkhon the northern route. They left Lyon (France) in 1245, crossed Central Europe, the Russian lands, at that time already seized by the Mongols of the Kypchak (Golden) Horde, the Caspian steppes and part of Central Asia. They came to Karakorum in 1246, when from all the regions of Asia conquered by the Mongols, to the headquarters of the newly elected great khan Guyuka delegations from conquered sedentary peoples and nomadic tribes arrived. About 4 thousand of the assembled envoys took the oath of loyalty to their sovereign. Plano Carpini and his companions used this extremely favorable circumstance to collect information about the Mongol Empire and the peoples inhabiting it. Here, the papal ambassadors first met the Chinese and the art of Chinese artisans. At the headquarters of Guyuk Khan, Plano Karpini met a group of Russians, including the Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (who was soon poisoned), father of Alexander Nevsky. In the spring of 1247, the Franciscans went back along the same northern road and returned safely to Lyons. Plano Carpini presented the Pope with a “Historical Review” (in Russian translation “History of the Mongols”) about the customs of the Mongols, their life, religion and state structure. His review is supplemented and refined by data recorded at the Pope's court from the words of his companion Benedict Pole: “The commission from the High High Priest,” writes Plano Carpini in the introduction, “was carried out with care both by us and ... by Brother Benedict, who was a member of our disasters and interpreter ".

Soon after Carpini, in 1249, the ambassador of the French crusader king visited Karakorum Louis IX Saint dominican monk André Longjumeau... The account of his journey has not survived, but there are only rare mentions of him in the stories of his contemporaries, in particular in Rubruk. Longjumeau traveled to Karakorum through Syria, Iraq, Iran and the Trans-Caspian deserts.

Important geographical information was collected by another (Franciscan) mission to Karakorum - Flemish Guillaume (Willem) Rubruka... She was sent from Akka (Northern Palestine) by Saint Louis IX after an unsuccessful trip to Egypt. The king hoped to find an ally against the Muslims in the great khan. In winter 1252 - 1253. Rubruk crossed the Black Sea and landed in the Crimean port of Soldaya (now Sudak). From here he moved east in May 1253. and two months later, on oxen, he reached the lower reaches of the Volga. Rubruk confirms that it flows into the enclosed Caspian Sea, and not into the gulf of the Northern Ocean, as almost all ancient geographers believed, except Herodotus and Ptolemy: “Brother Andrei [Longjumeau] personally rounded two sides of it, namely the southern and eastern, I have others two, namely the northern [and] ... western ”. Rubruk points out that the mountains rise in the west (Caucasus), in the south (Elburs) and in the east of the Caspian, probably the eastern mountains mean a distinct cliff - the Western Chink of Ustyurt, crossed by Longjumeau. In mid-September, the Franciscan moved east again. He made the further journey from the Caspian on horseback.

From Rubruk's report it is possible to determine its route only in the most general terms. He rode eastward a little north of the Aral Sea and the Syr Darya. After a long journey through the endless steppes, where woody vegetation was only occasionally found near the rivers, he reached the mountains (Karatau), and after passing them, he got into the valley of the river. Chu. Then the path went through the mountains (Zailiyskiy Alatau) to the valley of the river. Or, "flowing to the big lake" (Balkhash), and along the northern foot of the Dzhungarskiy Alatau to the Alakol lake. From there the monk penetrated, probably through the Dzungarian Gate into the valley of the Black Irtysh. Further, the road passed through the semi-desert and the traveler met only the Mongols, placed along a large tract. At the end of December 1253, on the boundless plain, Rubruk saw the Karakorum - the temporary headquarters of Mongke, the great khan of the Mongols. Here he met European artisans, including Russians and even one French jeweler. The Mongol capital, surrounded by an earthen rampart, did not make an impression on him, except for the court of the great khan. The monk was struck by something else - the presence, in addition to pagan, probably Buddhist temples, two mosques and one Christian (Nestorian) church - proof of the incomprehensible day of medieval Catholics, the tolerance of the Mongols.

Mongke Khan conveyed a letter to the ambassador to the French king. In this letter he called himself the ruler of the world and demanded an oath of allegiance from the French if they wanted to live in peace with him. Rubruk's companion, the Italian monk Bartolomeo (from Cremona), remained at the local Christian church. Rubruk went back in the summer of 1254. This time he drove to the lower Volga by the northern route, so that Balkhash remained south of him. In the fall, he moved south along the western coast of the Caspian Sea through the Caspian Gates, crossed the Armenian Highlands, crossed the Eastern Taurus and, reaching the Mediterranean Sea, arrived in Lebanon at his monastery in mid-August 1255.

Rubruk was the first in European literature to point out one of the main features of the relief of Central Asia - the presence of the Central Asian Highlands. This conclusion was drawn from observations of the direction of the flow of the Asiatic roars that were encountered on the way: “All the way I noted only one thing, which I said to me in Constantinople ... Baldwin de Genowho was there: ... he went up all the way ... and never came down. For all the rivers flowed from east to west, either straight or not straight, that is, with a slope south or north. " Rubruk also described, of course in general terms, according to inquiries, a number of countries in Central and East Asia. He pointed out that Kathai (North China) is adjacent to the ocean in the east. He was the first of the Europeans who quite rightly suggested that the sera of ancient geography and the Catayans are one and the same people. He collected, though scanty and sometimes incorrect, information about the Manchus, Koreans and some peoples of North Asia.

In the history of Western Europe's acquaintance with Asia, the mission of the XIII century. nevertheless played not a very large role, especially in the study of the geography of the continent. True, the records of the Franciscan ambassadors about the life of the inhabitants of the countries they visited, about the religion and military organization of the Mongols, etc., are still of great interest and are important historical documents. But the powers of observation of these robed diplomats and spies were limited by their scholastic Catholic education.

Marco Polo and his "Book"

western European merchants heading to Asia usually received special diplomatic or espionage assignments from their governments or from the Roman Church. But among merchants, the interests of buying and selling were in the first place: what valuable goods can be bought with the greatest profit for themselves in a particular Asian country, where and to whom it is possible to sell more profitably. And with these commercial interests were closely related issues of the financial order (taxes and duties) and observation of routes and means of communication, over trade points, etc. In a word, merchants were primarily interested in the "practice of trade". So it was named in the XIV century. famous Italian guide - a guide to the countries of Asia, compiled by a Florentine Francesco-Balducci Pegolotti... And it is characteristic that this practical guide for the itinerant trader has another name - "The Book of Descriptions of Countries." From such reference books later developed the branch of geography, which in the XIX century. in Western European countries was called "commercial geography", or "geography of trade", or "economic geography" as it is still understood by many bourgeois scientists.

Medieval Arab (more precisely, Arabic-speaking) geographers began to compile such manuals long before the 13th century. But according to its main content, the book of the Venetian traveler to China Marco Polo, which in the earliest version, dictated in 1298 in a Genoese prison, was called "The Book of the Diversity of the World", should be attributed to the first Western European works of this type. However, the "Book" by Marco Polo differs sharply from the later dry compilations in that it is mainly compiled from personal observations, otherwise, with few exceptions, according to the stories of his father Niccolo, uncles Maffeo (senior Polos) and oncoming people, and not from literary materials. This difference is also explained by the prison environment in which the Book was created: it was written down by another prisoner - a Pisa Rusticano as a chain of living stories addressed to direct listeners. Hence the Marco Polo style characteristic of The Book and the diversity of its content. The description of the journey, in the truest sense of the word, is only a short "Prologue" and a few of the chapters of the "Book". Basically, it is filled with characteristics of Asian countries, localities, cities, customs and life of their inhabitants, the court of the great khan of the Mongols and the Chinese emperor Kublai. This geographical material of the greatest interest contains historical chapters in several novella legends.

Senior Polos not once, like Marco himself, but three times crossed Asia, and twice - from west to east and once - in the opposite direction, during the first trip. Niccolo and Maffeo left Venice around 1254 and, after a six-year stay in Constantinople, left there for commercial purposes to the Southern Crimea, then moved to the Volga in 1261. From the middle Volga, the Polo brothers moved southeast through the lands of the Golden Horde, crossed the Trans-Caspian steppes, and then went through the Ustyurt plateau to Khorezm, to the city of Urgench. Their further path ran in the same, southeasterly direction up the Amu Darya valley to the lower reaches of Zarafshan and up along it to Bukhara. There they met with the ambassador of the conqueror of Iran, Ilkhan Hulagu, who was heading for the great khan Kublai, and the ambassador invited the Venetians to join his caravan. With him they went "north and northeast" for a whole year. Along the Zarafshan valley, they ascended to Samarkand, crossed into the Syr Darya valley and went down to Otrar along it. From here, their path lay along the foothills of the Western Tien Shan to the r. Or. Further to the east, they went either up the Ili valley, or through the Dzhungarskie Vorota, past Lake Alakol (east of Balkhash). Then they moved along the foothills of the Eastern Tien Shan and reached the Khami oasis, an important stage on the northern branch of the Great Silk Road from China to Central Asia. From Hami they turned south, into the valley of the river. Sulehe. And further east, to the court of the great khan, they followed the same path that they made later with Marco. Their way back is not clear. They returned to Venice in 1269.

In 1271, the Polo merchants, together with Marco, who was then 17 years old, left for Palestine, in Akka. In the fall of 1271, they crossed from there to Ayas (near the Iskenderon Bay), then crossed the central part of Asia Minor and the Armenian Highlands, turned south to Kurdistan, and descended the Tigris to Basra. Further, most likely, the Venetians went north to Tabriz, and then crossed Iran in a southeast direction through Kerman to Hormuz, hoping to reach China by sea (via India). But the ships in Hormuz seemed very unreliable to them - they returned to Kerman and made the difficult journey directly north through the Deshte-Lut desert in Cayenne. From there they reached Balkh by an unclear route. Moving to the east, along the southern foothills of the Hindu Kush, the travelers entered the high-mountainous Afghan Badakhshan and reached the outskirts of the Pamirs. In his Book, Marco Polo gives a short but remarkably accurate description of the Pamirs and the Alai Valley.

Turning to the northeast, the Venetians descended into the Kashgar oasis, and then rounded the Taklamakan desert from the south, moving along the northwestern foothills of Tibet, from oasis to oasis to the lower reaches of the river. Cherchen. Through the sands of Kumtag from well to block, they went to the valley of the river. Sulehe, and from there through the country of the Tanguts (north-eastern Tibetans) to the city of Ganzhou (Zhanye). The Venetians lived there for a whole year for an unexplained reason - "in a case that is not worth talking about." It is possible that it was at this time that Marco Polo visited the city of Karakorum, the northernmost point where he visited. (Everything that Marco says about North Asia is based not on personal observation, but on questionnaire information.) From Ganzhou, the Venetians moved further southeast through the "Tangut large region, where there are many kingdoms," to Xining. And the last section of their path - from the city of Xining to the temporary headquarters of the great khan - Clemenfu, which was located north of Khanbalik (Beijing) - ran first along the valley of the middle Yellow River, and then across the steppe.

For more than 15 years, Marco lived with his father and uncle in China (circa 1272–1292). While in the service of the great khan, he apparently crossed Eastern China several times and in different directions. Traveling in China then did not present any difficulties, especially for Kublai's messengers, during which an excellent communication service was organized - horse and foot (fast) mail. According to the "Book" of Marco Polo, it is possible to determine relatively accurately only two of its main routes through China, both from Khanbalik. One route - the eastern one - led along the coastal strip directly south through the countries of Cathai (North China) and Manzi (Central and South China) to the cities of Kingsai (Hangzhou) and Zeitun (Quanzhou). Another route led to the southwest, to Eastern Tibet and its border areas.

Glorified by a Venetian under the distorted name of Kinsai, Hangzhou, lying south of the mouth of the great Chinese river, was one of the largest cities in China in the Middle Ages. But the overly exaggerated description of Kinsay with his "12 thousand stone bridges" naturally aroused the distrust of some contemporaries in the addicted Million (Million) - this is how the Venetians called their fellow countryman, probably for his passion for exaggerations (real and imaginary).

After spending many years in the service of Kublai, the Venetians returned to their homeland by sea - around South Asia and through Iran: they accompanied, on behalf of the Great Khan, two princesses - a Chinese and a Mongol one, who were married off to the Ilkhan (Mongol ruler of Iran) and his heir, to the capital of the Ilkhans Tabriz. In 1292, the Chinese flotilla moved from Zeitun to the southwest, across the Chin (South China) Sea. During this trip, Marco heard about Indonesia - about the "7448 islands" scattered in the Chin Sea, but he only visited Sumatra, where the travelers spent five months. From Sumatra, the flotilla passed to about. Sri Lanka by Nicobar and Andaman Islands. Sri Lanka (like Java) Marco incorrectly reckons among the "largest in the world" islands, but truthfully describes the life of the Sri Lankans, the deposits of precious stones and the famous pearl fishing in the Polk Strait. From Sri Lanka, ships sailed along Western India and southern Iran, through the Strait of Hormuz to the Persian Gulf.

Marko also talks about African countries adjacent to the Indian Ocean, which he apparently did not visit; about the great country of Abassia (Abyssinia, ie Ethiopia), about the located glare of the equator and in the southern hemisphere of the islands "Zangibar" and "Madeigascar". But he confuses Zanzibar with Madagascar, and both islands with the coastal region of East Africa, and therefore gives a lot of incorrect information about them. Yet Marco was the first European to report Madagascar. After a three-year voyage, the Venetians brought the princesses to Iran (about 1264), and in 1295 arrived home. According to some reports, Marco took part in the war with Genoa and around 1297 during a naval battle was captured by the Genoese. In prison in 1298 he dictated the "Book", and in 1299 he was released and returned to his homeland. Almost all the information given by biographers about his later life in Venice is based on stories, some of which even date back to the 16th century. Documents of the same XIV century. very little has come down to our time about Marco himself and his family. It is proved, however, that he lived out his life as a wealthy, but far from wealthy Venetian citizen. He died in 1344.

In the XIV-XV centuries. The Book by Marco Polo served as one of the guides for cartographers. Its geographical nomenclature is largely repeated on many maps, including such well-known maps of the world as Catalan in 1375 and circular Fra-Mauro in 1459. But, of course, cartographers also used other sources, often much less reliable than the Book A generally truthful Venetian. The "Book" by Marco Polo played a very important role in the history of great discoveries. Not only that, the organizers and leaders of the Portuguese and first Spanish expeditions of the XV-XVI centuries. used maps compiled under the strong influence of Polo, but his very work was a reference book for prominent cosmographers and navigators, including Columbus. The "Book" by Marco Polo is one of the rare medieval works - literary works and scientific works that are being read and reread at the present time. It entered the golden fund of world literature, translated into many languages, published and republished in many countries of the world.

Western European missionaries and travelers of the XIV-XV centuries

at the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. several Catholic missions to South and East Asia are known, which provided geographical material, in some part supplementing the "Book" of Marco Polo. Around 1289 an Italian Franciscan monk Giovanni Montecorvino was sent by the Pope to Tabriz. Two years later, he went from Hormuz by sea to the Coromandel coast of Hindustan, and there he arrived among the local Christians (Fomists) for over a year. In his letters-reports, Montecorvino gave a good description of South India, the way of life of its population, trade and navigation in a monsoon climate. From there he sailed to China in 1293 and lived mainly in Northern China for about 35 years. However, his letters from China are geographically less interesting than letters from India.

A motley mixture of truth and fiction is the description of a 12-year journey through Asia (1318-1330) by a Franciscan Odorico of Pordenone... From Hormuz, he by sea about 1322 reached the Indian y. Thana (in the area where Bombay later grew up) visited both shores of South India and Sri Lanka. From there, about 1324, he arrived on the northwestern coast of about. Sumatra (Odoriko writes "Sumoltra", but refers this name only to the kingdom in the southern part of the island). Java, which he then switched to, is described by Odoriko as the most abundant and prosperous land. In those days it was ruled by one sovereign; he had seven kings in vassalage. From Java, Odoriko was the first of the Europeans to come to about. Kalimantan was the first to note that there are "good 24 thousand islands" in the seas of Southeast Asia - according to modern data, about 20 thousand, and with reefs much more. He visited South Vietnam and South China, reached Hangzhou, and from there - Khanbalik, where he lived for three years. On the way back, Odoriko crossed all of Asia westward. From Khanbalik and the Middle Yellow River basin, he went to the Red Basin of the river. The Yangtze, penetrated into Tibet, described the capital of the country, Lhasa, where, according to him, he lived for a long time (some historians legitimately doubt this). At this description, his travels end. It is only known that Odoriko returned to his homeland in 1330 and died on January 14, 1331 without completing his book. It is a chaotic tale of various countries and cities in Asia, its peoples and wonders.

In Europe at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. it became known that all Muslim states of Western Asia and Northern India were conquered by the Mongol ruler of Central Asia Tamerlane (so the name is distorted by Europeans Timur-leng, i.e. Timur the Lame). He was considered the most powerful ruler in the world; European sovereigns dreamed of attracting him as an ally to the fight against Muslims in Europe and North Africa. That is why the Castilian king especially interested in this Enrique III sent at the beginning of the XV century. two embassies to Timur in his capital Samarkand. At the head of one stood Ruy Gonzalez Clavijo, who during a three-year journey (1403-1406) kept a detailed diary, first published in 1582 under the title "The History of the Great Tamerlane." Being a very important primary source for the study of the state of the Near East and Central Asia at the beginning of the 15th century, Clavijo's "History" also provides new geographical material that replenishes the news of Marco Polo mainly in Central Asia and the neighboring regions of Northern Iran. His information from personal observations is usually true and accurate; some inquiry data are erroneous, in particular, reports that the Amu Darya "flows into the sea of \u200b\u200bBaku", that is, into the Caspian.

The Merchant of Venice Niccolo Conti from 1419 he lived in Damascus (Syria), studied the Arabic language there. In 1424 he began his travels with trade goals in Asia. From Damascus, Conti traveled to Hormuz and by sea moved to North-West India, to the port of Cambay. After visiting several cities in the area, he sailed south along the entire western coast of Hindustan, traveled to Sri Lanka, and then went by sea along the entire eastern coast of India to the mouth of the Ganges. From Bengal, he headed east by dry route, crossed the deserted mountains separating India from Northwestern Indochina, entered a wide plain, and reached the "very large river - Dawa" (Irrawaddy). Descending along it to the mouth, Conti returned by sea to Cambay, from there he headed further west, visited about. Socotra, in Aden, in one of the northern Ethiopian ports, in the Arabian harbor of Jeddah (port of Mecca) and through Egypt and Tripoli returned to Italy in 1444 Pope Eugene IV became so interested in Conti's wanderings that he forgave him even such a grave sin as renouncing his faith, and ordered his secretary, a famous humanist Poggio Bracciolini, write down his stories in Latin ("Four books on the volatility of fate").

1468 Shah of Shirvan, a country on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, sent ambassadors to the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III. Not earlier than April 1468, when the ambassadors set off on their way back, in Tver (Kalinin) two ships moored to them, equipped by Russian merchants led by Afanasy Nikitin... In July, the Tatars attacked the caravan near Astrakhan and plundered it. At the same time, the Russians lost their ships and almost all their property. Some of them, by various means, reached the Shirvan possessions and asked to return them to their homeland under protection, but the Shah refused, citing the fact that there were too many of them. “And we, having burst into tears, dispersed in all directions,” says Nikitin in his notes “Walking Beyond Three Seas”, “whoever had something in Russia, he went to Russia, and whoever was supposed to be there, he went wherever he looked ... "

Nikitin, as shown L. S. Semenov, did not "should", that is, he did not collect goods on credit, but he lost all his property and therefore decided to bargain in foreign countries. From Baku, "where the fire is inextinguishable", in September 1468 Nikitin sailed to the Caspian, Iranian region of Mazandaran. He stayed there for more than eight months, and then, having crossed the Elburs mountains, moved south. Athanasius traveled unhurriedly, sometimes for a month he lived at some point, engaged in trade. In one of the southern Iranian cities, he heard about how expensive purebred horses are in India and how cheap valuable goods are for Russia. He acquired a stallion, deciding to visit India, and headed for the Persian Gulf, however, more than once turning off the direct path to Gurmiz (Hormuz). After more than two years in Iran, on April 23, 1471, Nikitin boarded a ship going to the Indian port of Chaul, at 18 ° 30 "N. But he did not manage to sell the horse there profitably, and in June he sailed through the Western Ghats to inland, 200 versts from the sea, to the east, to a small town in the upper reaches of the Sina (Krishna basin), and from there to the north-west, to Junnar, at 74 ° E. He spent two months there and in September, although the period of rains did not end, led the stallion even further, for 400 versts, to Bidar, at 18 ° N lat., the capital of the non-Sermen (Muslim) state of Bahmani, which then owned almost the entire Deccan up to the Krishna River in the south, - “a big city, crowded. "Then he visited three neighboring cities and returned to Bidar in November. He managed to sell the horse only in December 1471. Nikitin describes the lush outings of the local sultan, his court, surrounded by walls with seven gates. He sees terrible poverty all around. which other European travelers did not pay attention to: “... f people are very poor, and boyars are rich and luxurious; they wear them on a silver stretcher ... "Nikitin notes both the strife between Hindus and Muslims (" they do not eat or drink with the desermen "), and the caste division of Hindus (" faith in India 84 "), and differences in the way of life and food of individual castes. In 1472 from Bidar Athanasius made a route to the sacred city of Parvat, on the right bank of Krishna. He left Bidar in April 1473, lived for five months in one of the cities of the "diamond" region of Raichur and decided to return "to Russia".

Nikitin was disappointed with the results of the trip: “The Basurmane dogs deceived me: they talked about a lot of goods, but it turned out that there was nothing for our land ... Pepper and paint are cheap. Some carry goods by sea, while others do not pay duties for it. But they won't let us carry it without duty. And the duty is high, and there are many robbers at sea. " Athanasius spent about three years in India, witnessed the wars between the two largest powers of the subcontinent at that time, and his records are refined and supplemented by Indian chronicles characterizing the events of 1471-1474. In "Walking ...", he also gives brief, but mostly reliable information about some "havens" where he himself did not get: about the capital of the powerful South Indian state of Vijayanagar and its main port Kolekot (Kozhikode), about Sri Lanka as about a country rich in precious stones, incense and elephants; about the "considerable pier" of Western Indochina Pegu (mouth of the Ayeyarwaddy), where Indian dervishes live - Buddhist monks who trade in precious stones, and about china "China and Machina" (China).

Exhausted in India, Nikitin at the end of 1473 set off on the return journey, which he described very briefly. He boarded the ship in Dabhol (Dabul) in January 1474, having paid two gold pieces for the journey to Hormuz. “And I sailed ... on the sea for a month and did not see anything, only the next month I saw the Ethiopian mountains ... and in that Ethiopian land I was five days. By God's grace, evil did not happen, we distributed a lot of rice, pepper, bread to the Ethiopians, and they did not rob the court. " The "Ethiopian Mountains" refers to the high northern coast of the Somali Peninsula. The vessel reached Muscat, having passed about 2000 km against the wind and the current, and spending much more time on this route than is noted in the text of "Walking ..."

After almost three months' voyage, Athanasius landed at Hormuz, where he stayed for 20 days. Then he moved north-west through the mountainous regions of Iran and, trading in spices, went to Tabriz, visited the main headquarters of the nomadic "white sheep" Turkmens, and then crossed the Armenian Highlands and reached the Black Sea near Trebizond by the beginning of October 1474. undertook to transport to the Genoese Kafa (Feodosia), but "because of a strong and evil wind" the ship reached it only on November 5. Further Nikitin did not keep records. Here he spent the winter of 1474-1475. and probably put his observations in order. In the spring of 1475, together with several merchants, Athanasius moved north, most likely along the Dnieper. From the brief introduction to his "Walking ...", included in the "Lviv Chronicle" under 1475, it is clear that he, "before reaching Smolensk, died [at the end of 1474 - beginning of 1475], and wrote the writing with his own hand , and his handwritten notebooks were brought by guests [merchants] to Moscow ... "

"Walking ..." in the XVI-XVII centuries. repeatedly corresponded: at least six lists have reached us. But until the 17th century. we are not aware of any new attempts in Russia to establish direct trade with India. And it is unlikely that those Russians who read "Walking ..." could be prompted to travel to India by the words of the truthful Nikitin that "there are no goods on the Russian land." His journey from an economic point of view proved to be a disadvantageous enterprise. But Nikitin was the first European to give a completely truthful, of great value description of medieval India, which he described simply, realistically, efficiently, without embellishment. By his feat, he convincingly proves that in the second half of the 15th century, 30 years before the Portuguese "discovery" of India, even a lonely and poor, but energetic person could make a trip to this country from Europe at his own risk and risk, despite a number of extremely unfavorable conditions. Indeed, Nikitin did not have the support of a secular sovereign, like the Portuguese Covilian who traveled shortly after him. The powerful ecclesiastical authority did not stand behind him, as behind his predecessors, the monks Montecorvino and Odorico of Pordenone. He did not renounce his faith as the Venetian Conti did. The only Orthodox Christian among Muslims and Hindus, Nikitin did not receive everywhere help and hospitality, like Arab merchants and travelers among their fellow believers.

Afanasy Nikitin was completely alone, very homesick and longed to return home. “And God preserve the Russian land ... There is no country like it in this world, although the runaways [princely governors] of the Russian land are unjust. Let the Russian land be comfortable, for there is little justice in it. "

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