The first ancient "Baedeker" was written by Pausanias.
Reputedly born in Lydia, Pausanias was an ancient traveler and geographer. Apart from Greece, he visited Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Macedonia, and Epirus. He lived in the time of the emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.
His most important work is the Description of Greece (Periegesis Hellados), which remains an invaluable text on ancient ruins and is "a crucial link between classical literature and modern archaeology" (Wikipedia).
The Description of
Greece survives in ten books in the form of a tour of Greece starting in Attica. The first book seems to have been
completed after 143 CE, but before 161CE. No event after 176CE is mentioned in
the work.
A Bryn Maw Classical Review of
K.W. Arafat's Pausanias' Greece : Ancient Artists and Roman Rulers
