Zheng He

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With its position at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Sur once played a major role as a trading hub between India and Africa.
Sailors clean the hull of a dhow in Sur.
Most famours for its shark market, Al Hodeida exports the fins to China to be made into shark fin soup.
An elder reads the Koran at Jibla's Queen Arwa Mosque. The queen, who ruled Yemen in medieval times, left a rich legacy, buil...
Jibla was the former capital of Yemen and reached the heights of its prosperity in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Eager students clamor for their teacher's attention at Koran school at the Queen Arwa mosque in Jibla.
The looming mud-brick towers of Al Hajirah, some as many as ten stories high, rise from the valley, just as Ma Huan described.
Wedding revelers in Al Hajirah dance while brandishing their jambiya, the ceremonial daggers worn by most Yemeni men.
More than 50 mosques, dating from the 12th century, remain in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital.
Date palms originated in the Persian gulf thousands of years ago. Their fruit, a prized commodity for Zheng He's fleet, is st...
Swahili Coast
Traditional sailing dhows are still the main form of transportation between the car-less islands of the Lamu archipelago.
Dressed in kanga cloth, Famao women from the Farouk family pound corn for cornmeal to make bread.
Young muslim women on Pate are swathed in the traditional buibui that covers everything but their expressive faces.
The Sanjeeda, one of the last great sailing dhows, navigates the waters off the coast of Lamu.
Sailors create their won form of shadow play, silhouetted by the sun on the Sanjeeda's sails, just off Lamu Island.
The mix of cultures that can be found along the Swahili coast is reflected in the piercing eyes of a young woman enveloped in...
At daybreak along the northeast coast of Zanzibar, Tanzania, fishing dhows head out from Matemwe for the open sea.
It was on this beach at Malindi, Kenya, where the king presented Zheng He with a giraffe to bring back to Emperor Zhu Di. Vas...
Sailors clean the hull of a dhow in Sur.
Craftsmen in the dhow yard in Beypore, Kerala still build ships the old-fashioned way - by hand, out of Burmese teak without ...
Children play in the surf on a Balinese beach.
Two fisherman confront the raging cataracts of Khone Falls, gingerly tossing their nets to catch fish as they jump through th...
Traders meet at the confluence of five canals at Phung Hiep.
These bamboo bucket boats in Nha Trang have not changed since Zheng He's visits here 600 years ago.
Great Wall of China
With Zheng He's many stops in India, this Chinese art form may have influenced the development of the equally elaborate Katha...