Before 600

Ġgantija is raised on Gozo — older than the pyramids and older than Stonehenge, and the earliest thing in this register that people travelled to see

The King’s Highway is in use from Aqaba to Damascus — caravanserais, forts and towns strung along it because a traveller had to stop somewhere

The Taittiriya Upanishad instructs that the guest is god — the oldest written statement of a hospitality principle in this register

Darius builds the Royal Road from Susa to Sardis — 111 relay stations with stables, guards and provisions, and a courier covers in nine days what takes three months on foot

Khor Rori is founded as a fortified port on the frankincense route — a place that receives sailors, brokers, interpreters and envoys as well as cargo

Ashoka sets rest houses every eight kos along the road that becomes the Grand Trunk

The yi relay stations take shape under the Han — organised accommodation in China begins as a state function, for officials, envoys, documents and horses

Herod builds at Caesarea a deep-water harbour, an aqueduct and a city designed to receive Rome

Herod builds a spa on the shore of the Dead Sea — arguably the oldest documented wellness destination in this register

Aretas IV takes the Nabataean throne; under him Petra reaches its height and most of the water system is cut

Muziris trades pepper for Roman gold; a trader waits half a year for the monsoon to turn and is housed for the duration

The Nabataean towns of the Negev make a desert crossing survivable by engineering water and stopping places, and charge for them

The Silk Road opens under the Han — a network requiring a bed, water, fodder, security and a market at the end of every day’s march, for six thousand kilometres

Nalanda begins housing and feeding resident scholars from across Asia — lodging, learning, charity and worship in one institution, for seven centuries