How far did the Magi travel to Bethlehem?

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Matthew says only that they came “from the east”, so the distance depends on where one starts them. From Babylon, the home of astrology and of a great Jewish community, Bethlehem is about 870 km in a straight line; from Persia, whose priests were called magi, about 1,280 km from Ecbatana and 1,230 km from Susa; from north-western Arabia, Dedan, about 620 km, and from Sheba in the far south of Arabia, where the gold and frankincense came from, about 2,030 km. Caravans could not go straight: from Mesopotamia they followed the Euphrates and turned south through Syria, so the road was longer by a good margin. At a caravan's 30 km a day, Babylon was a month or more away, Persia two; the last leg, Jerusalem to Bethlehem, is 8 km. Matthew's story: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.” From Jerusalem “the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was”; “when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” Herod then killed the boys of Bethlehem “from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men”, which has been read to mean that the star had been seen long before they arrived. The oldest Christian writers already disagreed. Justin Martyr, in the second century, said the Magi came from Arabia; Tertullian, citing the Psalm's “kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts”, wrote that the East held magi as kings, and with Isaiah's camels bringing “gold and incense” from Sheba this is why they became kings and, from the three gifts, three. Clement of Alexandria and most of the Greek fathers made them Persians, and the mosaic of the Magi in Persian dress over the door of the Church of the Nativity is said to have moved the Persian army to spare the church in 614. Their names, as Gathaspa, Melichior and Bithisarea, first appear in a Latin chronicle of about the eighth century, and their relics have been venerated at Cologne since 1164. The map's year for the birth is about 5 BC; the Magi's visit is not dated more closely.