Best Explorer

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese navigator who entered Spanish service and commanded an expedition that departed in 1519 seeking a westward route to the Spice Islands. His fleet discovered the passage now called the Strait of Magellan and completed the first recorded European crossing of the Paci...

Sir Edmund Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer who, with the Sherpa climber Tenzing Norgay, reached the summit of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953 as members of a British expedition. He later participated in the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition and reached the South Pole overland i...

Tenzing Norgay was a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer who, alongside Edmund Hillary, made the first confirmed ascent of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953 as part of the British expedition led by John Hunt.

Zheng He, historically romanized as Cheng Ho, was a Chinese admiral and court official of the Ming dynasty who commanded seven state-sponsored maritime expeditions between 1405 and 1433. His fleets traveled through Southeast Asia and across the Indian Ocean to South Asia, the Persian Gulf, Arabia, a...

Zheng He was a Chinese Muslim admiral and explorer who commanded seven massive maritime expeditions from China between 1405 and 1433, reaching Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Persian Gulf, and East Africa.

Ernest Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish explorer whose 1914–16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition became famous for his leadership after the ship Endurance was crushed by ice, saving all 28 crew members.

Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese navigator whose first voyage reached India by sea in 1498 after rounding the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the Indian Ocean to Calicut. The expedition established a direct maritime connection between Portugal and the commercial networks of the Indian Ocean. Da Gama la...

Jerzy Kukuczka was a Polish mountaineer who in 1987 became the second person to climb all fourteen mountains higher than 8,000 metres. He completed the series in less than eight years, often using new routes, winter ascents, or technically difficult lines and working with limited equipment and finan...

Xuanzang was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled overland to India around 629–645 CE to collect sacred texts, covering roughly 25,000 kilometres and producing a detailed account of Central Asian lands.

Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian whose work ranged from zoology and oceanography to international refugee relief. In 1888 his party completed the first recorded crossing of Greenland's interior, traveling on skis, and his Fram expedition later reached a...

Alex Honnold is an American rock climber known for free-solo climbing, in which a climber ascends without ropes or protective equipment. In June 2017 he completed the first free-solo ascent of the Freerider route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a climb documented in the film "Free Solo." Hi...

Christopher Columbus was a Genoese navigator who led four Atlantic voyages for the Spanish Crown beginning in 1492. His first expedition reached islands in the Caribbean, initiating sustained contact between Europe and the Americas, although he incorrectly believed that he had reached lands near Asi...

Leif Erikson was a Norse explorer, probably born in Iceland and raised in Greenland, who is described in medieval Icelandic sagas as reaching a North American region called Vinland around the year 1000. His voyage predates the transatlantic expeditions of Christopher Columbus by nearly five centurie...

Juan Sebastián Elcano was a Spanish navigator who completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth. After Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521, Elcano eventually took command of the Victoria and sailed westward across the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope, r...

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston is a British sailor who became the first person to complete a solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the world under sail. He departed in 1968 and returned in 1969 aboard Suhaili, a wooden ketch, winning the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race after 312 days at sea. He later participat...

Jacques Piccard was a Swiss oceanographer and engineer known for developing and piloting deep-diving bathyscaphes. On 23 January 1960, he and United States Navy officer Don Walsh descended in the bathyscaphe Trieste to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, reaching a measured depth commonly rep...

Joshua Slocum was a Canadian-born American mariner and writer who completed the first documented solo circumnavigation of the world. Between 1895 and 1898, he sailed the rebuilt 36-foot sloop Spray from Boston across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans before returning to the United States. He...

Don Walsh was an American naval officer, oceanographer, and specialist in deep-sea exploration. On 23 January 1960, he and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard descended in the bathyscaphe Trieste to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, reaching the deepest known region of the world's oceans. T...

Børge Ousland is a Norwegian polar explorer known for long-distance expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic. In 1994 he completed the first solo, unsupported journey to the North Pole, and in 1996 to 1997 he became the first person to cross Antarctica alone and without external resupply, using skis...

Henry the Navigator, or Infante Henry of Portugal, was a 15th-century prince who sponsored Portuguese voyages along the Atlantic coast of Africa. Although he was not the principal navigator on these expeditions, his patronage supported mariners, mapmaking, and commercial exploration that advanced Po...

Bartolomeu Dias was a Portuguese mariner and explorer who led the first recorded European expedition to round the southern end of Africa, accomplishing the passage in 1488. He called the region the Cape of Storms, while King John II of Portugal renamed it the Cape of Good Hope because the route sugg...

Ueli Steck was a Swiss alpinist and speed climber known for rapid ascents of technically demanding routes in the Alps and Himalayas. Nicknamed the Swiss Machine, he repeatedly set speed records on the north face of the Eiger and completed major solo climbs with minimal equipment. He also made a fast...

Tommy Caldwell is an American rock climber known for difficult free climbs, big-wall routes, and sustained climbing on Yosemite's El Capitan. In January 2015, he and Kevin Jorgeson completed the first free ascent of the Dawn Wall after years of route development, climbing its pitches using equipment...

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is a British explorer, expedition leader, author, and former soldier. With Charles Burton, he completed the Transglobe Expedition in 1982, the first surface circumnavigation of Earth along a route passing through both polar regions. His expeditions have also included unsupported...

Meriwether Lewis was an American army officer and explorer who, with William Clark, led the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1804 to 1806. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson after the Louisiana Purchase, the expedition traveled from the Mississippi watershed to the Pacific Coast, recording ge...

Nain Singh Rawat was a 19th-century Indian explorer and surveyor trained by the British Survey of India as one of its so-called pundit explorers. Traveling in disguise during the 1860s and 1870s, he measured routes and elevations across regions of Tibet that were then largely closed to Europeans. He...

William Clark was an American soldier, explorer, territorial official, and Indian agent who co-led the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Meriwether Lewis from 1804 to 1806. The expedition traveled from the Mississippi watershed across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast, documenting routes, lands...

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner is an Austrian mountaineer known for high-altitude climbing in the Himalaya and Karakoram. In 2011 she reached the summit of K2 and completed ascents of all fourteen mountains higher than 8,000 metres without using supplemental oxygen. Her record distinguishes her from climber...

Samuel de Champlain was a French navigator, cartographer, explorer, and colonial administrator active in northeastern North America during the early seventeenth century. He founded Quebec in 1608, explored portions of the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes region, and formed alliances with several I...