The Ancient And Medieval World - Key Question 1

Front 1

The five blocks of the eastern hemisphere of our world

Back 1

It shows the part of the world that educated people knew about in A.D. 1250 (about 700 years ago). Shows the entire world except the two Americas.

5 blocks:

1. The Mongol Empire - current China, a part of Siberia, South Russia, Iran and Asia Minor

2. India

3. The Muslim Empire of the Middle East - current Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and North Africa

4. Western Europe and European Russia

5. The remaining part of Africa

Hint 1

MIMWER

Front 2

Why did the people 700 years ago know little or nothing about other blocks?

Back 2

People 700 years ago knew little or nothing about other blocks because:

There were no streamships or railways until 150 years ago.

There were no buses or other efficient methods of transportation and most roads were very bad.

There was language barrier, so brave travellers or merchants who went there could not communicate.

Many obstacles such as rivers, mountains, deserts and jungles came in the way.

Hint 2

SR.BT.LTM.O

Front 3

Fa Hien

Back 3

Chinese traveller who visited India and Ceylon afterwards

Front 4

Marco Polo

Back 4

A famous merchant of Venice who became an important official in China under Kublai Khan

Front 5

Mungo Park

Back 5

Discovered the source of the River Niger

Front 6

Amundsen

Back 6

First reached the South Pole

Front 7

Tenzing with Hillary

Back 7

First climbed Mount Everest

Front 8

Leif Ericsson

Back 8

The bold Viking from Iceland who first reached the shores of North America from Europe

Front 9

Brave men and women who wanted more knowledge

Back 9

(Fa Hien

Marco Polo

Ibn Battuta) - wanted to travel to unknown parts of the word to see new lands and meet new people

Christopher Columbus - wanted to find out new ways of reaching places already heard about/known

Mungo Park

Amundsen

Tenzing

Hillary

Leif Ericsson

Front 10

The quickest way to travel

Back 10

horse-back

Front 11

Most comfortable way to travel

Back 11

Palanquin (palki) - carried on the shoulders of 4 strong bearers. Used in India. Chances of robbery or murder on the way were considerable.

Front 12

The rivers where the earliest civilizations travelled along

Back 12

Almost all journeys were overland and if possible along river valleys or across coastal plains.

The Egyptians:

•The River Nile

The Mesopotamians (of Iraq):

•The River Euphrates

•The Tigris

The Ancient Indians:

•The Indus

•The Ganges

•The Krishna

•The Godavari

The Chinese:

•The Yangtze Kiang

•The Hwang Ho

Hint 12

EMIC

Front 13

Christopher Columbus

Back 13

He got the idea of sailing westwards to China after reading about China in a book describing Marco Polo's travels. In 1492 Columbus reached the West Indian Islands and from that time onwards many explorers set out to discover new lands or new ways to reach old ones.

Front 14

Eratosthenes

Back 14

Famous Greek geographer who was probably the first man to calculate the diameter of the earth and made a map of the world as known in his time (the second century BC)

Front 15

Ptolemy's map

Back 15

Ptolemy, who also lived in Alexandria in Greece about 400 years after Eratosthenes, made the most famous ancient map (the Ptolemy's map)

Front 16

Chief map-makers

Back 16

• Arabs were the chief map-makers in the Middle Ages (9th to 13th centuries AD).

• Followed by the Dutch and the French.

• In modern times by the Germans and the British

Front 17

Where did Ashoka send his Buddhist missionaries? How did they go?

Back 17

It is recorded in his edict that he sent out his Buddhist missionaries to:

•Most of the neighbouring countries

•China

•Egypt

•Greece

They went overland:

•Across the Himalayas, through Tibet to China.

•Through Persia and Asia Minor to Egypt and Greece.

Front 18

Herodotus

Back 18

An adventurous Greek traveller who wrote a book describing the places and the strange sights he saw in north Africa on the opposite side of the Mediterranean sea from Greece. Most people laughed and said that he was telling travellers' tales. Only recently that we know that he was true although he exaggerated them.

Front 19

The Silk Road

Back 19

The 'Silk Road' was the route followed between the traders of China and Europe in the first century BC. It passed through the regions currently Tibet and Turkestan into Persia and the Mediterranean area.