Out of Africa
The migration that peopled the whole planet
See it on the timeline →In depth
Genetics indicates that everyone outside Africa descends from one main dispersal 50,000–70,000 years ago, through Bab el-Mandeb or Sinai. Earlier departures happened but left little trace in modern genomes. Along the way these groups interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans. Low sea level during the ice age opened land bridges and short sea crossings. No other large mammal has spread so fast and so widely — what travelled was not the body but the culture and the capacity to learn.
For children
A small group of people left Africa and walked north and east. Their grandchildren walked further, and their grandchildren further still. In a few tens of thousands of years their descendants had reached nearly every corner of Earth.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org