| A | B |
|---|
| Marco Polo | Italian explorer who traveled through China in 1274 |
| Kublai Khan | 1216-1294 Emperor of China who met with Marco Polo in the late 1200's |
| Zheng He | 1371-1433 Chinese explorer who made 7 major voyages to different parts of the world |
| Silk road | Network of overland trade routes between Europe and China |
| emperor | ruler of an empire |
| magnetic compass | Chinese invention that aided navigation by showing which direction was north |
| Sahara | Largest desert in the world, located in North Africa |
| Ghana | Country in Africa named for early kingdom in west Africa |
| Timbuktu | Town in West African kingdom of Mali, was one of the important stops along the caravan routes |
| Mecca | City in Saudi Arabia, pilgrimage site for Muslims |
| Songhai | Kingdom in Africa that flourished from the middle 1300's through the 1500's |
| Mansa Musa | King of the African kingdom of Mali in the early 1300's |
| caravan | Group of traders traveling together |
| astrolab | Tool that used the sun and stars to find a location based on its distance from the equator |
| Greenland | Island in the Northern Atlantic Ocean, the largest island on Earth |
| Vinland | Name meaning "Land of Wine," given by Leif Ericsson to the present-day Canadian province of Newfoundland |
| Portugal | Country in southwestern Europe |
| Cape of Good Hope | Southwestern tip of Africa |
| Eric the Red | Viking explorer who sailed to Iceland in about 965 and Greenland in about 982 |
| Leif Ericson | Late 900's, early 100's, son of Eric the Red; sailed to North America in about 1000 and explored what is now Newfoundland |
| Johann Gutenberg | German inventor of the printing press about 1450 |
| Prince Henry | Prince of Portugal who established a school for sailors and navigators |
| Bartolomeu Dias | Portuguese explorer who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, the southwestern tip of Africa |
| Vasco da Gama | Portuguese explorer who sailed to India in 1497 |
| saga | Long spoken tale repeated from one generation to the next |
| Renaissance | Period of time that marked a new beginning in arts and sciences and a desire to learn more about the world |
| navigation | Science sailors use to plot their course and find their location far from land |
| slave trade | Buying and selling human beings |
