Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India (1497–1499) was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans and therefore, the West and the Orient. Da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India was significant and opened the way for an age of global imperialism and for the Portuguese to establish a long-lasting colonial empire in Asia. Traveling the ocean route allowed
European route E01 in Portugal largest city in Portugal Porto. From this coastal city on the Atlantic Ocean, the E01 goes southwest, using the A1 motorway to the Centro Region passing by the major cities of Coimbra and Leiria to the Portuguese capital Lisbon. The motorway passes through the city center, from where it takes the A2 motorway crossing the sparsely populated Alentejo Region all the way until the south coast in the Algarve region at the merge with the A22 motorway at Albufeira. The road goes then east passing by Faro to the Spanish border at the Guadiana river in the Portuguese village of