The book by Lev Elnitsky tells about the outstanding journeys of the ancient world - from the oldest known voyage of the Egyptian Sinuhet, who lived four thousand years ago, to the expeditions of the Greeks to the north of Eurasia or to India. And also about how ideas about the size and shape of the Earth were created bit by bit, how the achievements of navigation gave rise to new cosmological ideas, how the first maps were created, ethnographic knowledge was replenished, and real geographical experience forced the reinterpretation of myths. In a word, this book is about the transformations that the picture of the universe underwent before the eyes of ancient generations.

Lev Elnitsky (1907–1979) is an ancient historian, author of a number of books, translator of Plutarch and other ancient authors.