Before indicating a voyage (pleasant or not, short or length, on sea or not, manpower or spiritual) and what this one can count like stopovers, meetings and adventures, the tour (literally " sailed autour" in Greek old what corresponds coarsely to Latin navigatio or travels in boat) was a term of geography. It described, in the Antiquité, a handwritten document used by the Phéniciens, the Greeks then the Romans for the Navigation around a Mer, of a coast or an area in a rather summary way, listing the ports, mouth S of Rivière S, the Amer S or the dangers that the navigator could meet with approximate Distance S between the latter.

Several examples of tours arrived to us:

• the Tour of Hannon of the name of Hannon, Carthaginian navigator of the 6th century before our era and describing the dimension of current Morocco until the Gulf of Guinea.

• the tour of Scylax de Caryanda, generally dated from before our era.
• the Tour of the sea Érythrée , written by an Alexandrine romanized with before our era. It describes the route in Red Sea (called here “Eritrean sea”) then described the dimension of India until the mouth of the Gange and the Eastern dimension of Africa (called Azania )
• the Périple of Himilcon, of another Carthaginian navigator, describing a road beyond the Cape Finisterre towards the English Brittany or islands.
• the Tour of the Bridge Euxin, a description of the roads along the coasts of the Black Sea, written by Arrien at the beginning of the 2nd century before our era.