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tourism involving travel to sites related to history and its sites of past events
Travel topics > Cultural attractions > Historical travel

Historical travel includes various kinds of destinations, from Stone Age cave paintings to Cold War installations of the late 20th century. History is a central focus for some travellers and some destinations, and almost every traveller in most places will at least have a look at some old buildings or the local museums.

Understand

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The early history of life on Earth is studied in paleontology, mainly through fossils. The earliest known fossils of the genus Homo date back at least 4.4 million years. Our species, Homo sapiens, is thought to have evolved between one and two hundred thousand years ago. Some homo sapiens migrated from Africa to the Middle East about 100,000 years ago and to Europe about 60,000 years ago. For purposes of this article, anything after 50,000 BCE counts as history. Naturally this overlaps considerably with our archaeology article.

Oldowan hand axe

The boundary between paleontology and archaeology, which deals mainly with the study of ancient human artifacts, is not at all well-defined. The oldest known tools made by hominids — Oldowan stone tools excavated in the Olduvai Gorge of Tanzania — are about 2.6 million years old. Australopithecines, of the genus which included direct ancestors of Homo, had cruder stone tools starting at least 3.3 million years ago. Controlled use of fire is apparently at least a million years old.

The boundary between prehistory and history is commonly drawn at the first local written records, which date back to around 3,000 BCE in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia, but as recently as the 19th century in some other parts of the world. Widespread literacy was rare in most of history and even when commoners could read and write, they often had no or limited access to durable material on which to write. As such, the written record is often focused on what the ruling elites deemed noteworthy and what can be learned about the everyday lives of common people is often only revealed indirectly or through archeology. "Oral history" or what was transmitted from generation to generation through poems, songs, legends and other means of storytelling was often dismissed by "Western" historiography but is now seen as a vital source of historical information instead of or in addition to the written record.

The distinction of history and pre-history by the availability of writing alone is not unanimously accepted and other markers are used as well. Pottery, the wheel, the first domesticated animals (dogs), and the first evidence of crop cultivation all appeared between 30,000 and 20,000 BCE. A number of other important developments took place between about 12,000 BCE and 3,000 — the Neolithic revolution transformed some societies from purely hunting/gathering to being based on agriculture, irrigation, cities, metalworking, and domestication of many more animals. During the civilizations of Greece and Rome, historians demonstrated their interest in history with contributions such as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a list of important works of art and architecture in the region.

The line between "historical" and "modern" is arbitrary; some draw it around the time of the European Renaissance or slightly later with the great voyages of discovery starting with Columbus and Vasco da Gama. For the purposes of a travel guide, it can be convenient to draw it at the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, when cities, industries and railroads began to expand fast, displacing older structures and rural folk culture. Surviving settlements and city districts from before the mid-19th century which were designed before and survived the advent of cars and trains, referred to as old towns, are typically smaller and more compact (and thus walkable) than modern cities. However, during the 19th and 20th centuries, older styles of art, architecture and furnishing were revived and reproduced, so that many buildings that look ancient might be less than 100 years old. There might even be a neo-Gothic train station or an Ancient Greek-style building in the Americas.

Deserted settlements can be archaeological sites or ghost towns. Pioneer villages can be authentic or artificial. In some places you quite literally trip over historical remnants, whereas other historic sites have been painstakingly preserved and restored. While the latter is usually more interesting it may seem "fake", "sterile" or even "artificial" when done badly. Also — with few exceptions — there are fewer lines (if any) for historical places that people actually still live in (like old towns) or use for their original purpose (like many churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples) than for museums or "theme parks".

Nostalgia tourism aims at recent history, remembered by people alive today (especially the middle-aged and elderly). As of the 2020s, it includes World War II, as well as postwar United States, Cold War Europe and the Soviet Union.

Some historical sites are threatened, either for natural causes or human-influenced ones like war or neglect. As of the 2020s, coastal cities such as Venice and New Orleans are sinking into the sea, ancient ruins in Iraq and Syria were damaged by wars of the 21st century, and many indigenous cultures around the world have only a handful of survivors left. Future generations are very unlikely to experience these places as they are today, as they will change even if they survive. Responsible travel can provide incentives to save them, or at least their memory.

Continents and regions

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Africa

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Africa is the wellspring of the human race and therefore the site of the oldest finds of human remains, in locations ranging from South Africa to Ethiopia. See paleontology.

Africa was also home to some of the world's oldest civilizations, particularly Ancient Egypt but also Nubia and Ethiopia; see Ancient African nations for an overview. A bit later in antiquity, Carthage dominated much of North Africa and was then conquered by the Romans, who did major construction projects in their African provinces as they did in all other parts of their empire, leaving behind substantial ruins. In addition, there were great empires in both the Sahel and Southern Africa in the centuries before European colonialism; some of these relics have been vandalized by Salafist extremists in the 21st century, such as those in northern Mali, but a lot is still standing. Perhaps the two most prominent pre-colonial sites in sub-Saharan Africa are Timbuktu in Mali and the Great Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe.

Arab and Berber/Moorish civilization also has left deep and lasting marks on North Africa, and the Arabs, especially the Sultanate of Oman, had far-flung tributary states down the East African coast, also known as the Swahili Coast, notably including Zanzibar, Kilwa Kisiwani and Mombasa. There are also many relics of European colonialism, including slave forts and other forts on the coasts. Locations associated with the trans-Atlantic slave trade, World War II battles, the fights for independence, and the fight against Apartheid in South Africa can also be visited; see 20th-century South Africa and Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites for the latter.

Great Zimbabwe is a remnant of a vast empire in Southern Africa

Antarctica

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The only unsettled continent has very few traces of human history. Some Antarctic islands, such as the South Georgia Island and South Shetland Islands, have remnants of the whaling industry. The remains of expeditions of the "heroic age" of Antarctic exploration can still be seen and some have been actively preserved or relocated to museums in Europe and elsewhere. Many former research stations have been abandoned to be "swallowed" by snow and ice, and there aren't always many traces visible.

Asia

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Asia had some of the world's oldest civilizations, including those in Ancient Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, Persia, Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Israel, the Edomites and Moabites of Jordan, China, India and Java, to name a few. The Middle East contains the world's first cities; some old towns have been inhabited for three millennia or more. The Holy Land is sacred to Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Baháʼí Faith.

While the Great Wall of China does not live up to the reputation to be visible from the Moon, it is one of the world's most impressive structures.

Iran has one of the oldest histories on earth. You may have heard names of emperors like Cyrus the Great or Ardashir I. The Achaemenid Empire was a really big empire which consisted of many states. The Silk Road played a very important role in supporting the economy of empire. The official language of the various Persian empires was usually Persian, but Aramaic and several other languages were also used.

The Asian nation that lacks archaeological relics is much more the exception than the rule. Much has been lost due to iconoclasm, such as in Malaysia several hundreds of years ago, when the relatively new Muslims destroyed Malay Hindu temples; in Saudi Arabia within the last few years, when numerous historical sites were razed in Mecca and other places; in Afghanistan, when statues of the Buddha that were thousands of years old were dynamited by the Taliban; and in Iraq and Syria in the first decade of the 21st century, when the Islamic State group destroyed many of the larger Babylonian and other historical relics they could get their hands on and spirited many of the smaller relics out of the country to sell on the black market.

Across Asia

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  • Silk Road, an ancient trading route that provided cultural and technology interchange between the East and West from the 2nd century BCE
  • On the trail of Marco Polo, who traveled from Venice to China in the 13th century
  • Voyages of Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century Muslim who travelled widely in Asia and Africa
  • Istanbul to New Delhi overland, the "Hippie Trail" of the 1960s and 70s. Parts of what was the usual route back in the day have become too dangerous, but the journey is still possible using alternative routes.

Middle East

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East and Central Asia

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South and Southeast Asia

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Europe

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The Colosseum in Rome is an icon of the Roman Empire.
See also: European history

Europe has been more thoroughly excavated by archaeologists than any other continent. Southern Europe has archaeological sites from Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and other ancient civilizations. Central Europe in particular is filled with medieval castles and early-modern palaces, with Old towns across the whole continent. Historical tourism itself has a long history in Europe; educational journeys such as the Grand Tour have been customary since the 17th century.

Europe's heritage has been scarred by war, especially World War II. The Holocaust was not just a genocidal campaign against the Jews; the Nazis also set out to methodically destroy Jewish heritage. Many beautiful synagogues were destroyed and never rebuilt due to — among other things — lack of a Jewish congregation, lack of funds or personal and institutional continuities. Jewish cemeteries, too, were vandalized. As the Second World War left many cities bombed beyond recognition, many city planners saw their opportunity to replace the "old fashioned" old towns with (in today's eyes) bland 1950s architecture and big streets and overpasses to make these places "ready for the automobile". Although the worst excesses have been turned back, many historical buildings that survived the wars were torn down in this somewhat iconoclastic frenzy.

Pan-European

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Central and Eastern Europe

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Nordic countries

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Northwestern Europe

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Southern Europe

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Oceania

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The Moai statues of Easter Island are iconic remnants of a lost civilization.

The first humans arrived at New Guinea and Australia 65,000 years ago; this places their indigenous cultures among the oldest known on Earth. Without writing or metalworking, their heritage is sourced from their artwork and oral tradition. See Indigenous Australian culture. The first settlers of the Solomon Islands arrived more than 30,000 years ago. The general term for these ethnic groups is Melanesians.

The rest of Oceania has a relatively short human history, though. The Austronesians began migrating into the Pacific around 3,000 BCE and were the first people to arrive in Polynesia, from 1,000 BCE onwards. They reached Hawaii in the 4th century CE, and New Zealand in the 13th century (see Maori culture), making the North and South Islands the last major landmasses on Earth to be settled (other than Antarctica). Oceania was also among the last regions to be charted and colonised by Europeans.

North America

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The September 11 Memorial in New York is one of the world's first monuments for an event of the 21st century.
See also: North American history, Indigenous cultures of North America

North American prehistory has left behind sites such as the New Mexico Pueblos and Ohio prehistoric sites. In addition, in Mexico and Central America, especially Guatemala, there are very impressive remains of the Mayan civilization, particularly quite a number of pyramids. Civilizations even older than the Maya are studied throughout Mexico, with cave drawing sites and places where civilization advancements such as the development of agriculture or writing systems happened independent of similar advancements in other parts of the world.

Sites associated with written history for the most part begin with early contact between the indigenous peoples of North America and European colonists. Often the indigenous were displaced by European settlers and sometimes killed (for example, the infamous Trail of Tears). Even when they were not deliberately killed, the settlers frequently decimated indigenous populations by introducing European diseases.

Early colonial sites are often preserved as "old towns" in Atlantic coastal cities such as Quebec City, Havana, San Juan, or St. Augustine. But there are also old cities inland, such as Santa Fe, New Mexico, Guanajuato and Granada (Nicaragua).

Early settlements that did not develop into major cities are often preserved (or reconstructed) as outdoor museums or "pioneer villages", like Louisbourg, Plymouth (Massachusetts), and Williamsburg.

The economic development of the American continent can be experienced by visiting historic plantations in the southern United States, haciendas in Mexico, and historic railroads.

Military tourism on this continent includes the American Revolution, War of 1812, the Mexican War of Independence, the American Civil War, the Mexican Revolution and the various "Indian Wars" between the colonists and the indigenous peoples.

African-American history includes sites related to the Atlantic slave trade as well as the Underground Railroad: multiple routes for smuggling slaves who had escaped the southern US across the northern states into what later became Canada (at the time British North America) or other non-US territory. Active primarily in the 1850s, when US federal law left slaves who had escaped to free states in immediate danger of recapture by slave catchers unless they left the US entirely.

History-focused itineraries include the Camino Real, the Royal Road linking the 21 Spanish missions of California and the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road that enabled economic development of New Spain in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States; the Lewis and Clark Trail leading across the Western United States, following the route of explorers Lewis and Clark; the Oregon Trail which took settlers to the Pacific coast; the Ruta del Tránsito, the historic route from east to west across North America that passed through Nicaragua; Route 66, which existed from 1926-1985 but continues to be marketed for nostalgia tourism; and the American Industry Tour from 17th-century Massachusetts to 20th-century Chicago.

For the politically-inclined there is also the chance to see sites related to the Presidents of the United States.

Mexico history series

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Some of these topics overlap a bit with articles in other countries, especially those related to indigenous cultures, which share some stories with Canada, the United States, and Central America (especially Guatemala). Events during Mexico's Colonial era and the War of Independence often hinge on events in Spain and its empire.

United States history series

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Note that most of these topics are not exclusive to the United States. Indigenous cultures did not conform to modern boundaries and thus many were equally present in Canada and Mexico. Colonial boundaries were also different to modern ones: British colonial history includes Bermuda and Nova Scotia as much as the "13 colonies" of U.S. school textbooks while the Spanish Empire included all of the southwestern United States. The American War of Independence was partially fought in present-day Canada. Even after the establishment of the modern boundaries, trends and events touched multiple countries; those interested in the Old West will also find cowboy culture in Northern Mexico and the Canadian Prairies.

South America

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Machu Picchu, the Lost Inca City.

Many people travel to Peru every year to see the Inca Trail and other historical sites from the Inca Empire. Other historical sites include the remnants of the Falklands War and the history of the Jesuit missions in Paraguay. Beautiful colonial old towns can be found all over the continent, especially in Argentina and Chile, whose mineral wealth made them some of the richest countries in the world during the early 20th century.

Themes

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Three fragments of the Epic of Gilgamesh, exhibited in the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago

The Great Epics

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Some of the oldest and most famous works of literature are epic poems about great heroes. In all cases there is some dispute among scholars about the historical authenticity of these stories, and about the dates of both the events described and the composition of the text.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest known piece of literature. It tells tales of a Sumerian king who probably ruled in the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE and of a great flood. The best-known version was likely written around 1200 BCE. While a surprising number of copies survive for a text of that age, they are not all written in the same language and sometimes disagree significantly on details.

Several great epics were written a few hundred years BCE and describe events around 1000 BCE:

  • Homer recounts the story of the Trojan War in two epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. In Roman times Virgil's Aeneid continues the story, following a warrior from Troy to Italy. Today Troy is an archaeological site which attracts tourists.
  • The Mahabarata is a great Indian epic, traditionally attributed to the sage Vyasa. Perhaps the most famous passage in Indian literature is the Bhagavad Gita, a dialog between the warrior Arjuna and the god Krishna which takes place just before the climactic battle. That battle was fought at Kurukshetra, which now attracts both pilgrims and tourists.
  • The Ramayana is another great Indian epic, traditionally attributed to Valmiki. An epic battle was fought between the forces of the hero, Rama, and the villain, Ravana, on the island of Lanka, which is widely believed to be modern-day Sri Lanka. There is a chain of islands stretching from modern-day India to Sri Lanka, which is believed by Hindus to be the remains of the land bridge to Lanka that Rama and his army built.
  • The Bible is a more complex set of books than can be encompassed by the term "epic", but parts of it are basically Hebrew epics. The Torah (Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses) was first written down in full in the 6th century BCE, with fragments having been found that date to the 7th century BCE. The Exodus of Moses is one of the most famous stories of the Old Testament.
See Holy Land, Judaism and Christianity for Biblical destinations.

Other epics were created later:

  • The Shahnameh is Iran's national epic, written in the late 10th and early 11th centuries CE by the poet Ferdowsi. It recounts the mythical origins and history of the Persian Empire up until the Muslim conquest in the 7th century. Besides Iran, it is also highly revered in the neighboring countries that were historically influenced by Persia, such as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan.
  • The Crusades inspired much epic poetry in medieval Europe. Perhaps the most famous among them is the French poem La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland), composed in the 11th century, possibly by a Norman poet called Turold. Other notable ones include the 16th century Italian poems La Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso and Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, the latter of which inspired numerous operas over the years.
  • Various Norse Sagas and Eddas probably originated as oral tradition around 1000 CE and were written down a few centuries later.
  • Os Lusíadas, composed by Luís Vaz de Camões in the 16th century, is Portugal's national epic, recounting the voyage to India by Vasco da Gama.
  • The Kalevala is the national epic of Finland and Karelia. Compiled in the 19th century from oral tradition by Elias Lönnrot in both modern-day Finland and Karelia, it recounts the creation of the world in Finnish pagan mythology, the mythical origins of the Finnish people, and Finnish history up until Christianization in the 9th-13th centuries.
  • Other Europeans also had epics, such as the Old English Beowulf or the Middle High German Nibelungenlied.

When reading any epic, keep in mind that most were passed down orally for centuries before being written down. Also, many tended to exaggerate numbers, either just to make a better story or to make rulers look impressive with great army sizes, harem sizes and feats of city building, so the "real deal" when finally verified by archeologists can fall short of the epic scales of the tales.

Others

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The equivalent in Chinese historiography is known as the Twenty-Four Histories (二十四史), starting with the compilation of the Records of the Grand Historian (史記/史记) by the Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian in the 1st century BCE. Subsequent official histories were typically compiled by the succeeding dynasty about the dynasty that preceded them. The official history of the Qing Dynasty has yet to be compiled; the Chinese government is attempting to compile it, but progress has been slow.

Various episodes of Chinese history have also been romanticized in various novels. The fall of the Shang Dynasty and its replacement by the Zhou Dynasty was romanticized in the novel Investiture of the Gods (封神榜), with mythological elements thrown in. The fall of the Han Dynasty and the ensuing Three Kingdoms period was romanticized in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義/三国演义), one of China's Four Great Novels. Another one of China's Four Great Novels, Journey to the West (西遊記/西游记), is a romanticized account of the Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang's journey to India to collect Buddhist scriptures, but with some mythical characters added to the story.

In Malaysia, the Sejarah Melayu or Malay Annals, while not technically a poem, is considered the foremost work of Malay literature, and is a romanticised account of the history of the Malacca Sultanate.

Espionage history

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See also: Spies and secrets

Espionage has existed since ancient times, and sometimes made or broken the fate of nations.

Science and technology tourism

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See also: Science tourism, Industrial tourism, Nuclear tourism

Science tourism is for those with an interest in science, including science museums as well as live science research centers and exploratory missions. Closely related is industrial tourism, factory tours and museums describing manufacturing in various time periods from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the modern era.

History of medicine seeks out the study of the human body and its diseases.

Industrial tourism includes visits to historical or present-day industrial sites and museums. Mining tourism and certain underground works are a subset of industrial tourism. It is often related to the history of transportation, with maritime history, steam power, heritage railways, automotive history, aviation history and space flight sites.

History of organized labor describes the first trade unions and their struggle to improve working conditions.

Nuclear tourism is for those with an interest in the nuclear industry from either a science or military perspective. The locations can either contain live reactors or be otherwise of interest from a historical point of view; see Golden Age of Modern Physics for the preceding research in the first half of the 20th century.

Mathematics tourism includes places which inspired the understanding of numbers, geometry, and mathematical structure.

History of justice

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See also: History of justice, Organized crime tourism

Judicial tourism includes visits to courthouses, police buildings, prisons, crime scenes, and other places related to the legal system.

Military tourism

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See also: Military tourism, Police and military ceremonies

Military tourism is for those with an interest in current or historical military sites and facilities, including museums, battlefields, cemeteries and technology.

Exploration

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Philosophy tourism

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See also: Philosophy tourism

Philosophy tourism is for those with an interest in the history of philosophy, including historical residences of philosophers, museums, statues and places of burial.

Political history

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See also

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UNESCO listings:

This travel topic about Historical travel is a usable article. It touches on all the major areas of the topic. An adventurous person could use this article, but please feel free to improve it by editing the page.
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