‘First forays ’ considers several notable figures in the history of exploration including: Harkhuf, who in 2270 bce explored the Nile River; Pytheas of Massalia, who around 325 bce sailed out north of the Bay of Biscay and circumnavigated the British Isles; Alexander the Great who introduced the Greeks to Arabia and India; Zhang Qian, in 139 bce, who provided the geographical stimulus to the further opening of the Silk Road; Ptolemy, whose second-century treatise Geographia encouraged exploratory ambitions for centuries to come; thirteenth-century Friar William of Rubruck; the traveller Marco Polo; and the accidental explorers Zheng He, who lead maritime expeditions through the Indian Ocean, between 1405 and 1433, and Moroccan pilgrim Abu 'Abdallah ibn Battúta.
Tectonics evolution and sedimentation history of the Sarawak Basin