This is a chronology of the early European exploration of Asia. See more

• 515 BC: Scylax explores the Indus and the sea route across the Indian Ocean to Egypt.
• 330 BC: Alexander the Great conquers parts of Central Asia and parts of northwestern India… See more

• 1488: Bartolomeu Dias reaches the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. This was an important milestone because this allowed future sailors like Vasco da Gama to sail to India and Southeast Asia.
• 1492: Christophe… See more

• 1579–1619: Thomas Stephens, a Jesuit, was probably the first Englishman to set foot in India where he died in 1619.
• 1599–1614: John Mildenhall, with Richard Newman, reach Agra, India, overland in 1614.… See more

• ~118 BCE: Eudoxus of Cyzicus was a Greek navigator from the Asian-Greek city of Cyzicus who explored the Arabian Sea for Ptolemy VIII, king of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.
• 522–550: Cosmas In… See more