List of explorers

Some great explorers (in alphabetic order by surname):

• Roald Amundsen - Norwegian, first at the South Pole, first to navigate the Northwest Passage in a single ship
• Vasco Nunez de Balboa (- Spanish, first to sight the Pacific Ocean, founded Darién, oldest surviving European settlement in the Western Hemisphere
• Willem Barents - Dutch, died on Nova Zembla seeking the Northeast Passage
• Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta - Moroccan Muslim, visited Mecca several times, travelled to Central Asia, East Africa, China, Tombouctou and other places
• Nicholas Baudin - 18th century French explorer, mapped the West Australian coastline.
• Saint Brendan - Irish abbot who sailed the Atlantic Ocean
• Richard Francis Burton - looking for the source of the Nile, discovered Lake Tanganyika
• John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) - Italian navigator in English service, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to North America
• Juan Sebastian del Cano - completed the first circumnavigation, started by Magellan
• Diego Cao - explored the African west coast
• Jacques Cartier - discovered the St. Lawrence River and sailed up it to Montreal; failed in an attempt to set up a colony
• Samuel de Champlain - established the French colony in Canada; discovered the Great Lakes
• William Clark - with Meriwether Lewis led the first American expedition to reach the west coast.
• Christopher Columbus - reached America looking for a searoute to the Indies; discovered various lands and islands and established a colony on Hispaniola
• James Cook - explored the Pacific, discovering or mapping many lands and islands
• Hernan Fernando Cortes - conquered the Aztec empire in Mexico; sent out expeditions to Baja California
• Bartolomeu Dias - Portuguese explorer who first rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
• Sir Francis Drake - pirate, leader of the second circumnavigation
• Jules Dumont d'Urville - explorer of the Pacific and Antarctica
• Eric the Red - explored and colonized Greenland
• Leif Ericsson - attempted to colonize Vinland
• Matthew Flinders - first to circumnavigate Australia and Tasmania, extensively charted the coastline and named such features as the Great Barrier Reef and the Great Australian Bight.
• Vasco da Gama - first to reach India from Europe by the sea route
• Hannu - ancient Egyptian who travelled along the Red Sea to a land called Punt
• Zheng He - Chinese admiral who travelled widely over the Indian Ocean and other seas, reaching Africa and Arabia and many other countries
• Bjarni Herjulfsson - Viking discoverer of North America
• Henry Hudson - discovered the Hudson River and sailed up it to Albany, discovered Hudson Bay
• Alexander von Humboldt - explored Central and South America, visited Siberia
• Jean François La Pérouse - French explorer of the Pacific
• Meriwether Lewis - leader of the first American expedition to cross the continent
• David Livingstone - explored south and east Africa, determined the course of the Zambesi, discovered Lake Nyasa
• Ferdinand Magellan - leader of first expedition around the world
• Douglas Mawson - Australian explorer of Antarctica
• Francisco de Orellana - first to navigate down the Amazon River
• Robert Edwin Peary - first man to reach the North Pole
• Francisco Pizarro - conqueror of the Inca Empire
• Marco Polo - travelled to China in the 13th century.
• Pytheas - Greek explorer who visited Britain and other north and northwest European countries
• Zhang Qian - spent 12 years starting in 138 BC exploring much of central asia for Emperor Han Wu Di
• John Rae - travelled widely through the Canadian Arctic
• Robert Falcon Scott - reached the South Pole less than one month after Amundsen, but died on the return voyage
• Scylax of Caryanda - a Greek explorer sent by the king of Persia to sail down the Indus River and around Arabia to Egypt
• Ernest Shackleton - attempted to reach the South Pole and came further south than anyone before him
• John Hanning Speke - discovered Lake Victoria
• Henry Morton Stanley - found back Livingstone; later explored Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and the Congo River
• Abel Tasman - discovered Tasmania and New Zealand

See also explorations, sea explorers, astronaut, conquistador, the History of Science and Technology and Biography.