In 2013 a storyteller set out to retrace our ancestors’ global migration.

On foot.

Why?

Introduction

Slow Down, Find Humanity

Paul Salopek’s 38,000-kilometer odyssey is a decade-long experiment in slow journalism. Moving at the beat of his footsteps, Paul is walking the pathways of the first humans who migrated out of Africa in the Stone Age and made the Earth ours. Along the way he is covering the major stories of our time—from climate change to technological innovation, from mass migration to cultural survival—by giving voice to the people who inhabit them every day. His words, as well as his photographs, video, and audio, create a global record of human life at the start of a new millennium as told by villagers, nomads, traders, farmers, soldiers, and artists who rarely make the news. In this way, if we choose to slow down and observe carefully, we also can rediscover our world.

EUROPE

NORTH

AMERICA

ASIA

AFRICA

PACIFIC OCEAN

Start

SOUTH

AMERICA

Walk route

Route by boat

AUSTRALIA

Human

migration route

Finish

Start

Human

migration route

Walk route

Finish

Route by boat

EUROPE

NORTH

AMERICA

ASIA

AFRICA

PACIFIC OCEAN

Start

SOUTH

AMERICA

Walk route

AUSTRALIA

Route by boat

Human migration

route

Finish

EUROPE

NORTH

AMERICA

ASIA

AFRICA

PACIFIC OCEAN

Start

SOUTH

AMERICA

Walk route

Route by boat

AUSTRALIA

Human

migration route

Finish

CHAPTER 1

Out of Africa

Ethiopia / Djibouti / Red Sea Crossing
January 2013 – May 2013
A motley camel caravan strikes out across the lands of the nomadic Afar toward the Indian Ocean and the “Strait of Tears.”

The journey begins in Ethiopia at one of the world’s oldest human fossil sites, Herto Bouri, and unspools across the scalding Afar Triangle, in the Rift Valley. Along this pathway our restless forebears ventured forth toward the Gulf of Aden, where they first stepped out of the mother continent to explore the wider world. As Salopek bears witness, this ancient pathway remains a conduit of opportunity—and sometimes fatal tragedy—for migrants seeking a better life today.

Walking is falling forward. Each step we take is an arrested plunge, a collapse averted, a disaster braked. In this way, to walk becomes an act of faith.
Paul Salopek | From To Walk the World

The journey begins in Ethiopia at one of the world’s oldest human fossil sites, Herto Bouri, and unspools across the scalding Afar Triangle, in the Rift Valley. Along this pathway our restless forebears ventured forth toward the Gulf of Aden, where they first stepped out of the mother continent to explore the wider world. As Salopek bears witness, this ancient pathway remains a conduit of opportunity—and sometimes fatal tragedy—for migrants seeking a better life today.

Walking is falling forward. Each step we take is an arrested plunge, a collapse averted, a disaster braked. In this way, to walk becomes an act of faith.
Paul Salopek | From To Walk the World
CHAPTER 2

Holy Lands

Saudi Arabia / Jordan / West Bank / Israel
May 2013 – July 2014
From the desert expanses of the Arabian Peninsula, the walk heads north into holy lands that seeded the three great monotheistic faiths.

The trek through the Middle East begins in the fabled deserts that guard the cradle of Islam—the Hejaz of Saudi Arabia, long forbidden to outsiders. Meetings with Bedouin nomads and echoes of the ghost of Lawrence of Arabia give way to encounters in the contested borderlands between Israelis and Palestinians. Crossing the West Bank, Salopek gets caught in a skirmish between these two peoples. Then, to circumvent the bloody civil war in Syria, he is forced to take cargo ships from Israel to Turkey.

Not an inch of this antique vista hasn’t been fought over, cursed, blessed, claimed for one divinity or another. It is a land worn smooth like a coin traded through countless fingers.
Paul Salopek | From Blessed. Cursed. Claimed.

The trek through the Middle East begins in the fabled deserts that guard the cradle of Islam—the Hejaz of Saudi Arabia, long forbidden to outsiders. Meetings with Bedouin nomads and echoes of the ghost of Lawrence of Arabia give way to encounters in the contested borderlands between Israelis and Palestinians. Crossing the West Bank, Salopek gets caught in a skirmish between these two peoples. Then, to circumvent the bloody civil war in Syria, he is forced to take cargo ships from Israel to Turkey.

Not an inch of this antique vista hasn’t been fought over, cursed, blessed, claimed for one divinity or another. It is a land worn smooth like a coin traded through countless fingers.
Paul Salopek | From Blessed. Cursed. Claimed.
CHAPTER 3

Autumn Wars

Cyprus / Turkey / Georgia / Azerbaijan
July 2014 – March 2016
What happens when you become a war refugee? You walk.

In southern Turkey, one of the oldest farmed landscapes, Salopek meanders through pistachio orchards, Bronze Age ruins, and walled medieval cities. And he walks into one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes of our time: tides of refugees from Syria’s civil war. Turning northeast, he passes through tense Kurdish villages en route to the Caucasus Mountains and a frigid crossing into Georgia—an oasis of stability in a turbulent region. From the capital, Tbilisi, Salopek sprints through Azerbaijan to the shore of the Caspian Sea. Central Asia and the ancient Silk Roads beckon.

The total number of destitute, uprooted people in the Middle East now scrapes five million. If you think this exodus won’t touch you, you are a fool.
Paul Salopek | From Fleeing Terror, Finding Refuge

In southern Turkey, one of the oldest farmed landscapes, Salopek meanders through pistachio orchards, Bronze Age ruins, and walled medieval cities. And he walks into one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes of our time: tides of refugees from Syria’s civil war. Turning northeast, he passes through tense Kurdish villages en route to the Caucasus Mountains and a frigid crossing into Georgia—an oasis of stability in a turbulent region. From the capital, Tbilisi, Salopek sprints through Azerbaijan to the shore of the Caspian Sea. Central Asia and the ancient Silk Roads beckon.

The total number of destitute, uprooted people in the Middle East now scrapes five million. If you think this exodus won’t touch you, you are a fool.
Paul Salopek | From Fleeing Terror, Finding Refuge
CHAPTER 4

Silk Road

Caspian Sea Crossing / Kazakhstan / Uzbekistan / Kyrgyzstan / Tajikistan / Afghanistan / Pakistan
April 2016 – February 2018
Salopek crosses the threshold of Central Asia.

Horses were domesticated in Kazakhstan, but finding a cargo animal today to span this country’s vast steppes proves no easy task. Salopek and his local guides make the first foot traverse in almost a century of the wild Ustyurt Plateau straddling Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan—a barren upland crisscrossed in earlier times by Neolithic hunters, Silk Road camel drivers, and armies of Scythians, Mongols, and Russians. The furnace of the Kyzyl Kum, or Red Desert, sears the route to the legendary oasis cities of Bukhara and Samarkand.

This spring the rains cascaded down in torrents not seen in a generation, turning the steppes into glue, filling the salt basins with brackish water.
Paul Salopek | From Watch: An Ancient Prairie Comes Back to Life

Horses were domesticated in Kazakhstan, but finding a cargo animal today to span this country’s vast steppes proves no easy task. Salopek and his local guides make the first foot traverse in almost a century of the wild Ustyurt Plateau straddling Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan—a barren upland crisscrossed in earlier times by Neolithic hunters, Silk Road camel drivers, and armies of Scythians, Mongols, and Russians. The furnace of the Kyzyl Kum, or Red Desert, sears the route to the legendary oasis cities of Bukhara and Samarkand.

This spring the rains cascaded down in torrents not seen in a generation, turning the steppes into glue, filling the salt basins with brackish water.
Paul Salopek | From Watch: An Ancient Prairie Comes Back to Life
CHAPTER 5

Riverlands

Pakistan / India
February 2018 – October 2021
Navigating a maze of waterways across fertile South Asia, the walk traverses an emerging center of global power.

After scaling the snow-draped ramparts of Central Asia—the Pamirs, the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram—the Out of Eden Walk's global trail meanders down onto the immense, river-fed plains of South Asia. From the green Punjab plateau in Pakistan, Paul and his local walking partners ramble eastward across ancient pilgrim roads in India, through a busy, booming world of villages and megacities toward the monsoon-drenched Bay of Bengal. Then the green pathways of Bangladesh and Myanmar lead onward to the edge of China.

After scaling the snow-draped ramparts of Central Asia—the Pamirs, the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram—the Out of Eden Walk's global trail meanders down onto the immense, river-fed plains of South Asia. From the green Punjab plateau in Pakistan, Paul and his local walking partners ramble eastward across ancient pilgrim roads in India, through a busy, booming world of villages and megacities toward the monsoon-drenched Bay of Bengal. Then the green pathways of Bangladesh and Myanmar lead onward to the edge of China.

CHAPTER 6 IN PROGRESS

Middle Kingdom

China
October 2021 – In Progress
A long walk through 5,000 years of Chinese history.
CHAPTER 7 IN PROGRESS

Asian Rim

South Korea / Japan
June 2024 – In Progress
A sea-hopping stroll through South Korea and Japan.