World Travellers

World Travellers

Today when we can travel from Karachi to Islamabad about 1300 kilometres in 12-14 hours by train, 18 hours by car, or two hours by plane, it is difficult to imagine travellers five or six centuries ago who could manage at most 60-70 kilometres in a ten-hour day, on foot or horseback. Under the best conditions, with some rest days, they would take at least four or five weeks to travel from Karachi to where Islamabad now is. Yet some travellers in the past did cover almost unbelievable distances.

Marco Polo (1254-1324): A little before Ibn-e-Batuta, Marco Polo, an Italian merchant, spent many years travelling through Central Asia to China. The Polos, father and uncle and young Marco, were Merchants from Genoa who traded mainly in Constantinople. When this was captured by rivals, they went eastwards through Central Asia, Afghanistan, Tibet, Mongolia. To give some idea of the speed of travel in those days, it took the Polos three and a half years to reach the Chinese capital, near where Beijing now stands. This was in 1275. The Polos become rich and very important to the Mongol Government.