They didnt have to sail to Africa per say.
By the time of those trips, there had been a reliable trade network for more than 1500 years stretching from Africa up through the Middle East into India.
I don’t doubt that it’d be possible to harbour hop those boats down to Africa, but they only needed to go as far as India/Persia to connect.
They didnt have to sail to Africa per say. By the time of those trips, there had been a reliable trade network for more than 1500 years stretching from Africa up through the Middle East into India.
I don’t doubt that it’d be possible to harbour hop those boats down to Africa, but they only needed to go as far as India/Persia to connect.
They did sail to Africa. It’s well documented in primary and secondary sources. They made a map with Africa on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Kun_map
Yes, but there is still doubt: