Travel outside a person's local area for leisure was largely confined to wealthy classes, who at times traveled to distant parts of the world, to see great buildings and works of art, learn new languages, experience new cultures, enjoy pristine scenery and to taste different cuisines. As early as Shulgi, however, kings praised themselves for protecting roads and building way stations for travelers. Travelling for pleasure can be seen in Egypt as early on as 1500 BC. During the Roman Republic, spas and coastal resorts such as Baiae were popular among the rich. The Roman upper class used to spend their free time on land or at sea and traveled to their Villa urbana or Villa maritima. Numerous villas were located in Campania, around Rome and in the northern part of the Adriatic as in Barcola near Trieste. Pausanias wrote his Description of Greece in the second century AD. In ancient China, nobles sometimes made a point of visiting Mount Tai and, on occasion, all five Sacred Mountains.