Walk the Pilgrim's Progress, to the Celestial City
A man with a burden on his back leaves his city and walks towards a light he can't yet see. Your everyday steps follow Christian down Bunyan's road, and the allegory unlocks at each place he passes.
- 80 miles
- 10 stops
- John Bunyan, 1678
The most famous walk in English
A man with a burden on his back leaves his city because he has read that it will burn, and walks toward a light he cannot yet see. Bunyan wrote it in Bedford gaol, and every bog, hill and fairground on the road is something he had personally been through.
Christian leaves the City of Destruction and falls straight into the Slough of Despond, then goes through the Wicket Gate, up the Hill Difficulty and down into the Valley of Humiliation to fight Apollyon. He passes through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, is arrested at Vanity Fair, gets locked in Doubting Castle and rests on the Delectable Mountains before the last river.
John Bunyan wrote it in Bedford gaol, where he spent twelve years for preaching without a licence, and it was published in 1678. For centuries it was one of the most widely read books in English. It is an allegory with no geography at all, so Bematist walks it on a map drawn by hand. The eighty miles are Bematist's figure, not Bunyan's.
- Distance
- 80 miles (129 km)
- Stops
- 10, each with its own passage and plate
- Map
- Drawn by hand
- Text
- John Bunyan; Project Gutenberg ebook #131
Where it starts
I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because, as I perceived, he could not tell which way to go.
The Pilgrim's Progress · John Bunyan
This is the passage Bematist gives you the moment you set out. The other 9 wait at the places they happened, and the only way to read them is to walk there.
How long would the pilgrimage take you?
At true scale on everyday walks, Christian's road takes about a month. Or pick your own finish and Bematist sets the pace from how much you already walk.
A rough guide, at about 0.75 m a step. In the app the pace comes from your own 30-day average in Apple Health, and stays fixed for the whole journey.
On the way
The words, at the places
10 passages, each waiting where it happened. You can see how far away the next one is, but not what it says.
Walk it with friends
Send a link and walk the same road together, each of you on your own streets, wherever you live.
No streak to lose
Steps come straight from Apple Health. A quiet day is just a short one, and your place on the road only moves forward.
More roads like this one
See the whole library, with a new book every month, chosen by walkers' vote.
Set out for the Celestial City.
80 miles of The Pilgrim’s Progress, on the walks you already take.
- For iPhone
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