swap_horiz Alexandra David-Néel Alternatives

1

Reinhold Messner

Reinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer, explorer, and author known for high-altitude climbing undertaken with minima...

Italian Mountaineering 20TH Century Himalaya

9.2 Excellent

2

Xuanzang

Xuanzang was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled overland to India around 629–645 CE to collect sacred text...

Asia Ancient Chinese Terrestrial

8.9 Great

3

Samuel de Champlain

Samuel de Champlain was a French navigator, cartographer, explorer, and colonial administrator active in northeastern No...

French Canada Great Lakes Terrestrial

8.2 Great

4

Nain Singh Rawat

Nain Singh Rawat was a 19th-century Indian explorer and surveyor trained by the British Survey of India as one of its so...

Indian 19TH Century Asia Terrestrial

8.2 Great

5

Wilfred Thesiger

Wilfred Thesiger was a British explorer who between 1945 and 1950 made two crossings of the Arabian Empty Quarter, becom...

Desert 20TH Century British Terrestrial

8.0 Great

6

Freya Stark

Freya Stark was a British-Italian travel writer and explorer known for journeys through the Middle East, particularly du...

20TH Century Female British Middle East

7.8 Good

7

Nikolai Przhevalsky

Nikolai Przhevalsky was a Russian geographer, naturalist, and military officer who led four major expeditions through Ce...

Russian 19TH Century Asia Central Asia

7.7 Good

8

William of Rubruck

William of Rubruck was a Flemish Franciscan friar who traveled to the court of Mongol Great Khan Möngke in 1253–55, prod...

Asia Medieval Mongolia Flemish

7.6 Good

9

René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle

René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle (1643-1687) was a French explorer who led expeditions across the Great Lakes region and...

French North America 17TH Century Mississippi

7.4 Good

10

René Caillié

René Caillié was a French explorer who in 1828 became the first non-Muslim European to visit Timbuktu in present-day Mal...

French 19TH Century Africa Terrestrial

7.4 Good

11

Jacques Marquette

Jacques Marquette (1637–1675) was a French Jesuit missionary and explorer who, alongside fur trader Louis Jolliet, led t...

French North America 17TH Century Mississippi

7.3 Good

12

Giovanni da Pian del Carpine

Giovanni da Pian del Carpine was an Italian Franciscan friar who in 1245–47 undertook one of the first European diplomat...

Italian Asia Medieval Mongolia

7.3 Good

13

T.E. Lawrence

Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, was a British archaeologist, army officer, and writer. Durin...

20TH Century British Middle East Terrestrial

7.3 Good

14

Dervla Murphy

Dervla Murphy (1931–2022) was an Irish travel writer who gained recognition with her 1965 debut book "Full Tilt," which...

Global 20TH Century Irish Terrestrial

7.3 Good

15

Paul-Émile Victor

Paul-Émile Victor was a French polar explorer and ethnologist who played a central role in modern French polar research....

French 20TH Century Polar Greenland

7.3 Good

16

Louis Joliet

Louis Jolliet was a French-Canadian explorer prominent in the mapping of North America during the 17th century. He is be...

French North America 17TH Century Mississippi

7.2 Good

17

Heinrich Harrer

Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaineer and explorer best known for his seven-year stay in Tibet beginning in 1944 a...

Austrian Asia Mountaineering 20TH Century

7.0 Good

18

Odoric of Pordenone

Odoric of Pordenone was an Italian Franciscan friar and traveler who journeyed through Asia between roughly 1318 and 133...

Italian China Asia Medieval

6.9 Fair

19

Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky

Pyotr Petrovich Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky was a Russian geographer and statistician whose 1856-1857 expeditions made him an...

Russian 19TH Century Asia Terrestrial

6.9 Fair

20

Alain Bombard

Alain Bombard was a French physician and biologist who investigated survival at sea. In 1952 he crossed the Atlantic alo...

French 20TH Century Maritime Atlantic

6.8 Fair