# The greatest explorers in history

The navigators, travellers and polar explorers named again and again on German history and knowledge sites, with their most important journey.

- 6 votes · 21 items
- Apr 7, 2025 · Jonas Wolf
- https://even.best/en/l/1101/the-greatest-explorers-in-history

## Top 15

1. **Ferdinand Magellan** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Led the first circumnavigation from 1519; died in the Philippines in 1521.
2. **Marco Polo** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Venetian who wrote of his years at the court of Kublai Khan in China.
3. **Alexander von Humboldt** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Explored South and Central America in 1799-1804; a founder of modern geography.
4. **Ernest Shackleton** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Saved his whole crew after the Endurance sank (1915).
5. **Jacques Cartier** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — French sailor who explored the Saint Lawrence River from 1534 and gave Canada its name.
6. **Christopher Columbus** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Reached the Americas in 1492 in the service of Spain.
7. **Juan Sebastián Elcano** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Completed the first circumnavigation aboard the Victoria in 1522.
8. **Vasco da Gama** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Found the sea route to India around Africa in 1498.
9. **Roald Amundsen** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — First to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911.
10. **Ibn Battuta** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Moroccan traveller who journeyed across the Islamic world and beyond for almost three decades from 1325.
11. **Zheng He** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Ming dynasty admiral who led seven great fleet voyages (1405-1433).
12. **Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — First ascent of Mount Everest, on 29 May 1953.
13. **Leif Eriksson** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Viking who reached North America (Vinland) around the year 1000.
14. **Bartolomeu Dias** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — First European to sail round the Cape of Good Hope, in 1488.
15. **David Livingstone** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Crossed Africa and reached Victoria Falls in 1855.
16. **Lewis and Clark** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Crossed North America to the Pacific in 1804-1806.
17. **Robert Falcon Scott** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Reached the South Pole in January 1912, just after Amundsen, and died on the way back.
18. **Abel Tasman** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Dutch sailor, was the first European to reach Tasmania and New Zealand in 1642.
19. **Fridtjof Nansen** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Norwegian polar explorer, was the first to cross Greenland in 1888 and drifted through the Arctic Ocean with the Fram.
20. **Henry Morton Stanley** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Found David Livingstone on Lake Tanganyika in 1871 and explored the Congo.
21. **James Cook** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Charted the east coast of Australia and New Zealand on three voyages (1768-1779).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.