Geographical exploration

Exploration is the act of searching or traveling for the purpose of discovery, e.g. of unknown regions, including space (space exploration), for oil, gas, coal, ores, caves, water (Mineral exploration or prospecting), or information. Exploration in information and spiritual age also involves the act of searching for uncommon knowledge or seeking the unknown metaphysical spiritual realms of consciousness, cyberspace or noosphere.

The term can also be used to describe the first flying incursions of peoples from one culture into the geographical and cultural environment of others. Although exploration has existed as long as human beings, its peak is seen as being during the Age of Discovery when European navigators travelled around the world discovering new lands and cultures.

In scientific research, exploration is one of three purposes of research (the other two being description and explanation). Exploration is the attempt to develop an initial, rough understanding of some phenomenon.

Notable explorers

Pytheas (380 – c. 310 BC) - Greek explorer. First to circumnavigate Great Britain and to explore Germany. Reached Thule, most commonly thought to be the Shetland Islands or Iceland.
Erik the Red (950 - 1003) - Norwegian Viking explorer. After being cast out from Iceland, he sailed to Greenland and settled there.
Leif Ericson (980 - 1020) - Icelandic explorer. Believed to have been the first European to land in North America.
Friar Julian (traveled in 1235) - Hungarian Dominican friar.
Marco Polo (1254 - 1324) - Italian explorer.
Ibn Battuta (1304 - 1377) - Berber explorer.
Zheng He (1371 - 1433) - Chinese explorer.
John Cabot (c. 1450 - 1499) - Italian explorer. Discovered Newfoundland and claimed it for the Kingdom of England.
Bartholomeu Dias (c. 1450 - 1500) - Portuguese explorer. He sailed from Portugal and reached the Cape of Good Hope.
Christopher Columbus (1451 - 1506) - Italian explorer. Sailed in 1492 and discovered the "New World" of the Americas.
Amerigo Vespucci (c. 1454 - 1512) - Italian explorer. Sailed in 1499 and 1502. He explored the east coast of South America.
Juan Ponce de León (c. 1460 - 1521) - Spanish explorer. He explored Florida while attempting to locate a Fountain of Youth.
Piri Reis (c. 1465/1470 – 1554/1555) - Ottoman explorer.
Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. 1467 - c. 1520) - Portuguese explorer, generally regarded as first European discoverer of the sea route to Brazil.
Vasco da Gama (c. 1469 - 1524) - Portuguese explorer. He sailed from Portugal to India by rounding the Cape of Good Hope.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa (c. 1475 - 1519) - Spanish explorer. The first European to cross the Isthmus of Panama and view the Pacific ocean from American shores.
Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475 - 1541) - Spanish explorer. Conquered the Inca Empire.
Juan Sebastián Elcano (1476 - 1526) - Spanish explorer. Completed the first circumnavigation of the globe in a single expedition after its captain, Magellan, was killed.
Ferdinand Magellan (1480 - 1521) - Portuguese explorer. Initiated the first circumnavigation of the globe in a single expedition. Sailed through Strait of Magellan and named Pacific Ocean. Died in the Philippines after claiming them for Spain.
Giovanni da Verrazzano (c. 1485 - 1528) - Italian explorer. Explored the northeast coast of America, from about present day South Carolina to Newfoundland.
Hernán Cortés (1485 - 1545) - Spanish explorer. Conquered the Aztec Empire for Spain.
Jacques Cartier (1491 – 1557) - French explorer. Discovered Canada.
Hernando de Soto (c. 1496 - 1542) - Spanish explorer. Explored Florida, mainly northwest Florida, and discovered the Mississippi River.
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (c. 1510 - 1554) - Spanish explorer. Searched for the Seven Cities of Gold and discovered the Grand Canyon in the process.
Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540 - 1596) - English explorer. The first English captain to sail around the world and survive.
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532 - 1592) Spanish explorer of the Pacific.
Alvaro de Mendaña de Neyra 1541-1596 Spanish explorer of the Pacific.
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós 1565-1614 Portuguese navigator. Explored the Pacific in the service of the Spanish Crown.
Luis Váez de Torres (c. 1565- ) Spanish or Portuguese navigator. Explored the Pacific in the service of the Spanish Crown.
Henry Hudson (1570 - 1611) - English explorer. Explored much of the North Atlantic, including Labrador, the coast of Greenland, and Hudson Bay. Presumed dead in a 1611 mutiny of his own crew.
Abel Tasman (1603-1659) - Dutch explorer. Discovered New Zealand and Tasmania.
Vitus Bering (1681 - 1741) - Danish explorer. Explored the Siberian Far East and Alaska and claimed it for Russia.
James Cook (1728 - 1779) - English naval captain. Explored much of the Pacific including New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii.
Jean François La Pérouse (1741–1788) was a French Navy officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania
Alessandro Malaspina (1754-1810) - Italian explorer. Explored the Pacific and the west coast of North America in the service of Spanish Crown
Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820) Scottish-Canadian explorer who in 1789, looking for the Northwest Passage, followed the river now named after him to the Arctic Ocean and then in 1793 crossed the Rockies and reached the Pacific in 1793, thus beating Lewis and Clark by 12 years.
Alexander von Humboldt (1769 - 1859) - German explorer and scientist whose work was foundational to the field of biogeography.
Captain Meriwether Lewis (1774 - 1809) - American explorer and field scientist who led the Lewis and Clark Expedition into the Louisiana Purchase and the Pacific Northwest in 1804-1806.
Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) - American naval officer and explorer who commanded the United States Exploring Expedition
David Livingstone (1813 – 1873) - Scottish missionary and explorer in central Africa. He was the first European to see Victoria Falls, which he named in honour of Queen Victoria.
Henry Morton Stanley (1841 – 1904) - Welsh journalist and explorer in central Africa best remembered for his search for David Livingstone, and upon finding him saying: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
Fridtjof Nansen (1861 - 1930) - Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat. He was the first to cross the Greenland ice cap in 1888 and drifted across the Arctic ocean with the Fram in 1893-1896 where he attempted to reach the North Pole with Hjalmar Johansen.
Otto Sverdrup (1854 - 1930) - Norwegian explorer. Joined Fridtjof Nansen acoss Greenland in 1888 and captain on the Fram on the polar drift in 1893-1896 and the 2nd Fram expedition in 1898-1902. Mapped the Northenmost part of Canada in 1898-1902.
Roald Amundsen (1872 - 1928) - Norwegian explorer. He led the first successful Antarctic expedition between 1910 and 1912. He was also the first ever person to successfully traverse the North West Passage.
Ernest Shackleton (1874 - 1922) - British Explorer, noted for his ill-fated Endurance expedition to Antarctica.
Hiram Bingham III (1875 - 1956) - U.S. Senator from Connecticut and explorer best known for uncovering Machu Picchu.
Robert Bartlett (1875 - 1946) - Newfoundland captain. Led over 40 expeditions to the Arctic, more than anyone before or since. Was the first to sail north of 88° N latitude.
Knud Rasmussen (1879 - 1933) - Greenlandic polar explorer and anthropologist. Rasmussen was the first to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled.
Auguste Piccard (1884-1962), physicist, balloonist, hydronaut- Explored the stratosphere and the deep sea
Ahmed Pasha Hassanein (1889 - 1946) - Egyptian explorer, diplomat, one of two non-European winners of Gold Medal of Royal Geographical Society in 1924, King's chamberlain, fencing participant to 1924 Olympics, photographer, author and discoverer of Jebel Uweinat, and writer of "The Lost Oases" book in three languages.
Colonel Noel Andrew Croft (1906 - 1998) - held the record for the longest self-sustaining journey across the Arctic in the 1930s for 60 years.
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (born July 20, 1919) - New Zealand explorer, together with Tenzing Norgay, the first to climb Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.
Neil Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) - American astronaut - First human being to set foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
Yuri Gagarin (March 9, 1934 – March 27, 1968) - Soviet cosmonaut who on April 12 1961 became the first man in space and the first human to orbit Earth.
Robert Ballard - born in 1942) - undersea explorer; discovered the shipwreck of the RMS Titanic'.
Dr. E. Lee Spence (1947- ) - undersea explorer and pioneer underwater archaeologist: discovered numerous shipwrecks including H.L. Hunley the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship; and the Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser.
Reinhold Messner (born September 17, 1944) - Italian mountaineer, first man to climb all the 14 peaks higher than 8,000 meters.
Frank Cole (1954 - 2000) - Canadian explorer, filmmaker and life extensionist. He was the first North American to cross the Sahara desert in 1990 alone on camel. He was murdered by bandits during a second crossing in 2000.

Exploration by area

External links

Ocean Explorer - Public outreach site for explorations sponsored by the Office of Ocean Exploration.
NOAA, Ocean Explorer History
NOAA, Ocean Explorer Gallery - A rich collection of images, video, audio and podcast.
NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration
Explorers worksheets and printables for teachers
Hassanein Bey of the Libyan Desert, RGS Gold Medalist of 1924 - NGS article of 1924, biography, etc.

Notable explorers

Exploration by area

See also

External links