Contents
Great explorers 4
The Northwest Passage
28
New discoveries 6
Mary Kingsley in Africa
30
Explorers in ancient times 8
Livingstone in Africa
32
Hsüan Tsang in India
10
Across Australia
34
12
Amundsen in the Antarctic 36
Marco Polo in China
14
Scott and Shackleton
38
Ibn Battuta
16
Norgay and Hillary
40
Columbus and America
18
Armstrong on the Moon
42
Cortés and Pizarro 20
Modern exploration
44
First around the world
22
Glossary
46
Cook in the Pacific
24
Index
48
Lewis and Clark
26
Viking voyages
Life dates
Throughout this book, you will see dates in
brackets after an explorer’s name. These tell
you when they lived. For example, Marco Polo
(1254–1324) means that Marco Polo was born
in 1254 and died in 1324.
3
Great explorers
Have you heard of Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus,
David Livingstone or Roald Amundsen? They were
famous explorers who travelled through deserts
and rainforests, over mountains, and across huge
oceans and frozen lands to explore new places. They
discovered places they did not know existed, and places
that nobody had ever been before.
These explorers were often away from home for many
years. They did not have accurate maps, and they
faced terrible weather, disease and hunger. Some
explorers survived using their skills, or because they just
refused to give up. Others died on their expeditions.
4