I imagine a tired merchant from a few thousand years ago, resting in an oasis and staring up at the star-filled night sky, wondering if he’ll ever see home again and what dangers he might face in the coming weeks or months. Perhaps he wonders about far-distant tales of the future, though I doubt he could ever have imagined a Dutchman doing the same work, high up in the sky, gazing down with his own contemplations during a regular day’s work.

A postcard view on a weekly route around the world at most. How far we have come since that distant, ancient past.

Three thousand years later:
Far below, an immeasurable ocean of sand stretches out across the horizon in every direction of my illuminated compass. I spot massive sand dunes that flow across the desert in slow motion, transforming the landscape in ways it will never be the same again.

The desert poses an unforgiving and harsh environment that humans have crossed since ancient times. Relying on navigating by the stars and a fair bit of good luck, evidence suggests that mankind has been crossing the Arabian Desert since around 3,000 BCE (5,000 years ago), about the same time the Polynesians are believed to have sailed thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean. A remarkable accomplishment that shows they held a deep understanding of astronomy and the natural world.

Not to be confused with the Silk Road, the merchant routes across Arabia go back much further and were known as the Spice Route, carrying tons of goods like spices, silk, precious metals, and trinkets between civilizations such as Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, India, and China. The Temu merchandise of days long past, I suppose.

Today, the dromedary caravans have been replaced with more efficient methods of transportation, though we carry virtually the same goods, in a fraction of the time.

As above, so below.