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Pauline Letters · Evidence-led guide

Map of Paul’s missionary journeys

Geography turns the names in Acts into a demanding physical journey across roads, mountain corridors, ports, islands, and imperial cities.

Created and edited by Thomas Diong · Updated

Reader question

Where did Paul actually travel, and how much of the route is certain?

Paul’s attested travel runs from Jerusalem and Damascus through Cyprus and Asia Minor into Macedonia and Achaia, then by sea to Rome. Every stop on this map sits at real coordinates taken from published ancient-world gazetteers, and a leg Acts states is drawn differently from one reconstructed between two known points.

Paul’s route across the eastern MediterraneanA geographic overview from Jerusalem and Damascus through Asia Minor and Greece, then by sea through Malta to Rome. The ordered stop list follows the map.
Named places use geographic coordinates; inferred corridors and debated locations are identified in the stop list.

Put this map on your own page

Free to use on a class page, a blog, or a church site. Paste the code into an HTML or custom-code block. It needs no JavaScript, and it keeps the uncertainty labels that make it honest: a debated location is drawn as an open diamond rather than a circle.

The map is drawn for 640px and stays readable down to 480px. Narrower than that and the legend explaining those diamonds gets too small to read, which is the one part worth keeping legible.

Some site builders—including Squarespace, Wix, and free WordPress.com plans—remove embedded frames. Use this Markdown instead to link a still image to the full map:

Single journeys are available too: replace the address with /embed/map/first, /embed/map/second, /embed/map/third, or /embed/map/voyage.

Ordered route and stop list

  1. c. AD 5-10?Tarsus

    Cilicia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  2. c. AD 20s-30sJerusalem

    Judea · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  3. c. AD 33/34Jerusalem

    Judea · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  4. c. AD 33/34Jerusalem → Judea

    Judea · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one; region or corridor, no single point

  5. c. AD 33/34The Road to Damascus → Damascus

    Syria · debated identification; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  6. c. AD 33/34Damascus

    Syria · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  7. c. AD 34-37Arabia (Nabatea) → Damascus

    Nabatea, Syria · region or corridor, no single point; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  8. c. AD 34-37Damascus

    Syria · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  9. c. AD 36/37Jerusalem

    Judea · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  10. c. AD 37-45Caesarea Maritima → Tarsus → Syria → Cilicia

    Judea, Cilicia · located archaeological site; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one; region or corridor, no single point

  11. c. AD 42-44?Location unstated

    The sources name no place for this stage.

  12. c. AD 44-46Antioch

    Syria · located archaeological site

  13. c. AD 44-47Antioch → Jerusalem → Judea

    Syria, Judea · located archaeological site; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one; region or corridor, no single point

  14. c. AD 46-48Antioch → Seleucia Pieria → Salamis → Paphos

    Syria, Cyprus · located archaeological site

  15. c. AD 46-48Perga → Pisidian Antioch

    Pamphylia, Pisidia · located archaeological site

  16. c. AD 46-48Iconium

    Lycaonia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  17. c. AD 46-48Lystra

    Lycaonia · debated identification

  18. c. AD 46-48Derbe → Lystra → Iconium → Pisidian Antioch

    Lycaonia, Pisidia · debated identification; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one; located archaeological site

  19. c. AD 48Perga → Attalia → Antioch

    Pamphylia, Syria · located archaeological site; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  20. c. AD 48/49Jerusalem

    Judea · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  21. c. AD 48/49Antioch

    Syria · located archaeological site

  22. c. AD 48/49Antioch

    Syria · located archaeological site

  23. c. AD 49Antioch → Jerusalem

    Syria, Judea · located archaeological site; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  24. c. AD 49Antioch

    Syria · located archaeological site

  25. c. AD 49Antioch → Syria → Cilicia

    Syria · located archaeological site; region or corridor, no single point

  26. c. AD 49-50Syria → Cilicia → Derbe → Lystra

    Lycaonia · region or corridor, no single point; debated identification

  27. c. AD 50Phrygia → Galatian region → Mysia → Alexandria Troas

    Mysia · region or corridor, no single point; located archaeological site

  28. c. AD 50Samothrace → Neapolis → Philippi

    Aegean, Macedonia · located archaeological site

  29. c. AD 50Amphipolis → Apollonia → Thessalonica

    Macedonia · located archaeological site; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  30. c. AD 50Berea

    Macedonia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  31. c. AD 50Athens

    Achaia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  32. c. AD 50-52Corinth

    Achaia · located archaeological site

  33. c. AD 51/52Corinth

    Achaia · located archaeological site

  34. c. AD 52Cenchreae → Ephesus → Caesarea Maritima → Jerusalem → Antioch

    Achaia, Asia, Judea, Syria · located archaeological site; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  35. c. AD 52/53Antioch → Galatian region → Phrygia

    Syria · located archaeological site; region or corridor, no single point

  36. c. AD 52/53-55/56Ephesus

    Asia · located archaeological site

  37. c. AD 54/55Ephesus

    Asia · located archaeological site

  38. c. AD 55/56Ephesus → Corinth

    Asia, Achaia · located archaeological site

  39. c. AD 55/56Ephesus

    Asia · located archaeological site

  40. c. AD 55/56Alexandria Troas → Macedonia

    Mysia · located archaeological site; region or corridor, no single point

  41. c. AD 55/56Macedonia → Illyricum

    region or corridor, no single point

  42. c. AD 56/57Corinth → Cenchreae

    Achaia · located archaeological site

  43. c. AD 57Philippi → Alexandria Troas

    Macedonia, Mysia · located archaeological site

  44. c. AD 57Assos → Mitylene → Chios → Samos → Miletus

    Mysia, Lesbos, Aegean, Asia · located archaeological site

  45. c. AD 57Miletus

    Asia · located archaeological site

  46. c. AD 57Cos → Rhodes → Patara → Tyre

    Aegean, Lycia, Phoenicia · located archaeological site; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  47. c. AD 57Ptolemais → Caesarea Maritima

    Phoenicia, Judea · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one; located archaeological site

  48. c. AD 57Jerusalem

    Judea · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  49. c. AD 57Jerusalem

    Judea · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  50. c. AD 57Jerusalem

    Judea · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  51. c. AD 57Jerusalem → Caesarea Maritima

    Judea · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one; located archaeological site

  52. c. AD 57-59Caesarea Maritima

    Judea · located archaeological site

  53. c. AD 59Caesarea Maritima

    Judea · located archaeological site

  54. c. AD 59Caesarea Maritima

    Judea · located archaeological site

  55. c. AD 59/60Caesarea Maritima → Sidon → Myra → Cnidus → Fair Havens

    Judea, Phoenicia, Lycia, Caria, Crete · located archaeological site; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one; debated identification

  56. c. AD 59/60Malta

    Mediterranean · debated identification

  57. c. AD 60Malta → Syracuse → Rhegium → Puteoli → Forum Appii → Three Taverns → Rome

    Mediterranean, Sicily, Italia · debated identification; located archaeological site; city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  58. c. AD 60-62Rome

    Italia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  59. c. AD 60-62Rome

    Italia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  60. c. AD 60-62Rome

    Italia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  61. c. AD 60-62Rome

    Italia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  62. c. AD 62-64Macedonia → Ephesus → Crete → Nicopolis

    Asia, Crete, Epirus · region or corridor, no single point; located archaeological site

  63. c. AD 62-64Ephesus

    Asia · located archaeological site

  64. c. AD 62-64Crete

    Crete · region or corridor, no single point

  65. c. AD 64-67Rome

    Italia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  66. c. AD 64-67Rome

    Italia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

  67. c. AD 64-67Rome

    Italia · city centroid, ancient town beneath the modern one

Where the coordinates come from

Every named place on this map sits at a real coordinate rather than an artistic position. Sites are taken from published ancient-world gazetteers, principally Pleiades, ToposText, and the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire, and cross-checked against modern identifications where a city has been continuously occupied, as Damascus, Tarsus, Athens, and Rome have.

Precision is recorded rather than assumed. A coordinate may identify an excavated site, a city centroid where the ancient town lies beneath a modern one, a debated identification, or a region with no single point at all. Lystra and Derbe fall into the debated class. Provinces and travel corridors are marked regional instead of being pinned to a spot the text never specifies.

Roads, passes, and sea lanes

The route is drawn as travel rather than as straight lines between dots. Overland legs follow the corridors the terrain allows, such as the Cilician Gates and the pass over the Amanus range, and sea legs follow plausible sailing water. That distinction is enforced, not merely intended: a leg marked as walked has to stay on land and a leg marked as sailed has to stay off it, or the project fails its own build.

Where Acts states a movement, the map draws it. Where Acts jumps and the intervening travel is inferred, the map still shows a crossing, because Paul did not teleport, but the guides say plainly that the route between those two points is reconstruction. The run past Fair Havens is the clearest case: the ports are named, the storm track is not.

Common questions

How many missionary journeys did Paul make?

Acts describes three journeys out of Syrian Antioch, followed by the voyage to Rome as a prisoner. The numbering is a later convention rather than something Acts counts, and the voyage is usually treated separately because Paul travels under guard rather than by his own plan.

Did Paul travel by land or by sea?

Both, and the text usually shows which. Acts names ports and sailings for the long crossings and describes overland stages through the interior. Where it is silent, this project draws the shorter attested option and labels it as reconstruction rather than inventing a route.

Where do the map’s coordinates come from?

From published ancient-world gazetteers — Pleiades, ToposText, and the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire — cross-checked against secure modern identifications. Where the text names a province or a travel corridor rather than a city, the entry is marked regional instead of being given false precision.

Which locations on Paul’s route are disputed?

Lystra, Derbe, and the shipwreck route past Fair Havens are the best known. Each appears with the identification this project uses and a visible label recording that the placement is debated, so a contested site is never shown as settled.

Bibliography and sources

  1. Acts 7–28, World English Bible (public domain). View source
  2. Romans through Philemon, World English Bible (public domain). View source
  3. The project’s 67-row chronology, cross-referencing Acts and the letters and labeling debated dates.