Ride with a traveler
Pick a road and ride it
Six people who crossed Tartary and wrote it down. Follow each one stop by stop, and read what they saw where they saw it.
1220 to 1224An old sage crosses Asia to meet the KhanThe Daoist master Changchun travels from Shandong across Mongolia and Central Asia to Genghis Khan's camp near the Hindu Kush, at the Khan's summons.16 stops · 16 passages on the road1253 to 1255A friar rides to the Great KhanA Flemish friar travels from Constantinople across the steppe to the Mongol court at Karakorum and back, hoping to preach there.16 stops · 14 passages on the roadabout 1332 to 1333A Moroccan scholar among the khansIbn Battuta crosses the Black Sea into the Golden Horde, then rides through Central Asia on his long way to India.16 stops · 13 passages on the road1403 to 1406A Castilian envoy rides to Timur's courtA knight of Madrid travels from Spain to Samarkand and back as envoy of King Henry III of Castile to Timur.16 stops · 13 passages on the road1692 to 1695The tsars' envoy rides to PekingA merchant in Russian service carries the tsars' letter from Moscow across Siberia to the Kangxi emperor in Peking, and comes home again.18 stops · 15 passages on the road1719 to 1722A Scottish doctor rides to PekingJohn Bell travels with a Russian embassy from St Petersburg across Siberia and Mongolia to the emperor of China at Peking, and back.17 stops · 12 passages on the road