Two thousand four hundred and sixty-odd years ago in Persia, King Artaxerxes granted one of his officials, Nehemiah, leave of absence to travel to Judea. With him, the King sent a letter to the “governors beyond the river” requesting safe passage for his servant as he crossed the Euphrates on his way to Jerusalem. Thus began the story of the passport. Two and a half millennia later, one in three Americans, nine in ten Norwegians and 5% of Chinese have one. The UK prints five million of them a year, or one every 2.5 seconds, at a secret location in the north of England. Three million of them are flying 30,000 feet above you as we speak. Of course, passports have taken on additional functions and evolved in both style and content since the days of Nehemiah, but they still serve the sam...
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As any avid traveller knows, passports are the key to adventures. Passports are the ultimate “don’t leave home without it” item, but the nationality of your passport can have a major effect on your travel plans and time abroad. To clue you in on the effects your passport can have, GoEuro has undertaken the task of analysing passports from 50 countries around the world to discover which nationalities’ passports are the most useful in making your way around the globe. The US passport has long been considered the most powerful passport in the world – until now. GoEuro ranks the US passport at number five. Taking the top spot in GoEuro’s poll is the Swedish passport which allows its holders access to 174 countries and costs $43 to renew, only one hour’s work on minimum wage. The US passport
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