1: The Ancient World 1: Introduction 2: Journeys from the cradle 3: Minoan seafarers 4: Travel in ancient Egypt 5: The expedition to Punt 6: Polynesian navigators 7: Around Africa 8: Persian couriers 9: The Greek world 10: The travels of Odysseus11: Alexander the Great 12: The travels of Zhang Qian 13: Across the Alps 14: Strabo 15: The Roman Empire 16: The Tabula Peutingeriana 17: The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea 18: Ptolemy's Geographia

2: Trade and Conquest 1: Introduction 2: Xuanzang's journey to India 3: Journey to the West 4: Kingdom of Heaven 5: The spread of Islam 6: Arab exploration 7: The astrolabe 8: Voyages of the Vikings 9: The Crusades 10: Prester John 11: Medieval pilgrimages 12: Medieval travel accounts 13: The Silk Road 14: The travels of Marco Polo 15: On wheels 16: Caravanserai 17: Trans-Saharan salt caravans 18: Ibn Battuta 19: Medieval maps

3: The Age of Discovery 1: Introduction 2: Zheng He 3: Ships 4: Around Africa to India 5: A new world 6: After Columbus 7: First map of the New World 8: Circumnavigating the globe 9: Cortés and the conquest of the Aztecs 10: Pizarro's conquest of Peru 11: The discovery of the Amazon 12: The Columbian Exchange 13: New France 14: Samuel de Champlain 15: Early missionaries 16: The Northwest Passage

4: The Age of Empires 1: Introduction 2: The spice trade 3: Wonder cabinets 4: New Holland 5: Settling America 6: Evliya Çelebi 7: Coffee 8: Slave ships in the Atlantic 9: A life of piracy 10: Travels in the Mughal Empire 11: The stagecoach 12: The frozen east 13: The Great Northern Expedition 14: Calculating longitude 15: The voyages of Captain Cook 16: The new naturalists 17: Artist in the rainforest 18: The Grand Tour 19: First flight 20: Bound for Botany Bay

5: The Age of Steam 1: Introduction 2: Alexander von Humboldt 3: Rediscovering Egypt 4: Painting the East 5: Charting the American West 6: Go west, young man! 7: Full steam ahead 8: The Romantics 9: The voyages of the Beagle 10: Travellers' tales 11: Shooting the world 12: Into Africa 13: The Railway Age 14: Trains 15: The Gold Rush 16: Thomas Cook 17: Spas 18: Going by the book 19: Souvenirs 20: The works of all nations 21: Across Australia 22: Charting the Mekong 23: Ocean to ocean 24: The grand hotel 25: Luggage labels 26: Measuring India

6: The Golden Age of Travel 1: Introduction 2: Central Asia 3: On skis across 4: Greenland 5: The bicycle craze 6: Zeppelin fever 7: The airline of empire 8: Travel posters 9: The Long March 10: Planes 11: The roof of the world 12: The open road 13: Route 66 14: No-frills flying 15: Into the abyss 16: Flight to the Moon 17: The Hippie Trail 18: Concorde 19: New horizons 20: Exploration today 21: New frontiers

8: Index 9: Picture credits and acknowledgments