Strabo is a Greek geographer and historian who lived between 63 BC - 24 AD. He was born in Amaseia (Amasya) city of Pontus region, part of Black Sea region of Turkey today. He came from a noble family and had a good education; he studied geography and philosophy in a Carian city of Nyssa and then in Rome. He traveled a lot during his life, especially to Egypt and the Nile area.
Strabo wrote his famous "Geographica" (Geography) book which is collected in a set of 17 volumes. In these books he mentioned the history of all the people and regions of the world of that time. Today, all of these volumes are saved, except some parts of volume 7. The volumes 11-14 describe Asia Minor especially. Strabo admits that he in a way he was influenced by Homer, he especially admires his great knowledge of history regarding the Greek world.
In the book of Geographica Strabo said that the whole world consisted of one big Ocean and that India could be reached if you traveled all the way to the West. He also told about his theories regarding the formation of mountains and volcanoes, and that islands in the Mediterranean have emerged from erupting volcanoes under the sea. He mentioned the erosion of the land, shifting of the continents, country borders and their distances from each other, each regions' economic and ethnographic characteristics, and many other useful data. He described Anatolia, Egypt, Italy, India, Iran and Mesopotamia.
Strabo also composed a history book called "Historica Hypomnemata" (Historical Memories) of 47 volumes, but nothing much survived until our days except few papyrus pages.
After his death around 24 AD, Roman geographers and historians (such as Pliny for example) ignored him and his works. But after 5th century, Byzantine writers and historians gave him the credit again. Today, Strabo is named as "the Geographer".