The first humans to explore the Earth made the long journey out of Africa during the Stone Age, and Paul Salopek is walking their same path. This photo maps out their 24,000 mile trek through all of the continents covering the globe.

There were many people who walked this path and Paul even quoted “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”. They thought of the desert land of the Arabian Peninsula as the holy lands which was the history for the three monotheistic faiths. So many people believed in this so it made it easy for them to all want to walk this journey. Still to this day since the Stone Age, the Out of Eden walk is still being talked about by trying to connect all of the diverse partners involved. The path crosses through the Silk Road in Central Asia which was one of the largest trading paths in history. This meant that it connected so many people because lots of people were located around the Silk road.

Overall, this project that Paul Salopek started is meant to connect the different, diverse continents. It shows the path that the first humans took during the Stone Age to connect the different bodies of land. To learn more about the Out of Eden walk, explore https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/out-of-eden-walk/#section-0.

Julie Barron