Discover

This 'list of explorers' is sorted by surname. See also the links below.

Contents

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z

Footnotes

See also

A

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Antonio de Abreu	Portuguese	16th	Indonesia
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta	Moroccan	13th	Africa, Central Asia, China, Europe, Indian subcontinent, Middle East, Russia, Southeast Asia
Charles Albanel	French	17th	Canada
Afonso de Albuquerque	Portuguese	16th	India
Ahmad ibn Fadlan	Iraqi Arab	10th	Eastern Europe, Middle East, Russia, Scandinavia
Ahmad ibn Rustah	Persian	10th	Russia, Scandinavia, Arabia
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin	American	20th	the Moon
Pêro de Alenquer	Portuguese	15th	African coast
Benedict Allen	English	20th/21st	various
Diego de Almagro	Spanish	16th	Peru, Chile
Francisco de Almeida	Portuguese	16th	India
Pedro de Alvarado	Spanish	16th	Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras
Francisco Álvares	Portuguese	16th	Ethiopia
Jorge Álvares	Portuguese	16th	China
Roald Amundsen	Norwegian	early 20th	South Pole, Antarctica, Northwest Passage
Fernão Pires de Andrade	Portuguese	16th	China
Henryk Arctowski	Polish	20th	Antarctic, South America
Salomon August Andrée	Swedish	19th	Arctic
Roy Chapman Andrews	American	20th	China, Mongolia
Neil Armstrong	American	20th	the Moon
Väinö Auer	Finnish	20th	Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia
Diogo de Azambuja	Portuguese	15th	West African coast

B

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
George Back	English	19th	Canadian Arctic
William Baffin	English	17th	Northwest Passage
Samuel Baker	English	19th	Africa
Vasco Núñez de Balboa	Spanish	16th	Panama
Pêro de Barcelos	Portuguese	15th/16th	North America
Willem Barents	Dutch	16th	Northeast Passage, Novaya Zemlya
Heinrich Barth	German	19th	Central and northern Africa
Robert Bartlett	Canadian	early 20th	Arctic
George Bass	Australian	18th	Australia
Nicolas Baudin	French	18th	Australia
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen	Russian	19th	Antarctica
Joseph René Bellot	French	19th	Arctic
Móric Beňovský	Slovak	18th	northern Pacific Ocean
Vitus Bering	Danish	18th	northern Pacific Ocean
Vittorio Bottego	Italian	19th	Somalia
Pierre Savorgan de Brazza	Italian/French	19th	Congo
Saint Brendan	Irish	6th	Atlantic Ocean
James Bruce	Scottish	18th	Algeria, the Middle East, Egypt
William S. Bruce	Scottish	early 20th	Antarctica
Lafayette Bunnell	American	19th	Yosemite Valley
Richard Francis Burton	English	19th	central Africa
Richard E. Byrd	American	20th	North Pole, Antarctica

C

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca	Spanish	16th	southwestern United States, Mexico, Argentina
John Cabot[1]	Italian	15th	North American mainland (Canada)
Pedro Álvares Cabral	Portuguese	15th/16th	Brazil, Madagascar
João Rodrigues Cabrilho	Portuguese	16th	California
Alvise Cadamosto	Italian	15th	Cape Verde islands
Alvaro Caminha	Portuguese	15th	São Tomé and Príncipe islands
Pêro Vaz de Caminha	Portuguese	15th	Brazil
Diogo Cão	Portuguese	15th	west coast of Africa (including the Congo River)
Jan Carstensz	Dutch	17th	New Guinea coast, Gulf of Carpentaria
Jacques Cartier	French	16th	St. Lawrence River
René-Robert Cavelier	French	17th	Mississippi embayment
Thomas Cavendish	English	16th	Virginia, Pacific coast of Central and South America
Samuel de Champlain	French	16th/17th	Quebec, Great Lakes
Hugh Clapperton	Scottish	early 19th	west and central Africa
William Clark	American	early 19th	western United States
Gonçalo Coelho	Portuguese	15th/16th	South American coast
Nicolau Coelho	Portuguese	15th	Brazil
Christopher Columbus[2]	Italian	15th/16th	Caribbean
Niccolò Da Conti	Italian	early 15th	India, Southeast Asia
Frederick Cook	American	19th/20th	Arctic
James Cook	English	18th	Australasia, Oceania
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado	Spanish	16th	New Mexico
João, Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real	Portuguese	15th/16th	Newfoundland
Hernán Cortés	Spanish	16th	Mexico
Juan de la Cosa	Spanish	15th/16th	Caribbean, South America
Thomas Coulter	Irish	19th	Mexico, Alta California
Jacques-Yves Cousteau	French	20th	the deep sea
Pero da Covilhã	Portuguese	15th/16th	Ethiopia
Tristão da Cunha	Portuguese	16th	Tristan da Cunha islands

D

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Alexandra David-Néel	French	20th	Tibet
George Washington De Long	American	19th	Arctic
Jean-François-Marie de Surville	French	18th	New Zealand
Semyon Dezhnev	Russian	17th	area and islands of the Bering Strait
Bartolomeu and Pêro Dias	Portuguese	15th	Cape of Good Hope
Dinis Dias	Portuguese	15th	Cap-Vert
Diogo Dias	Portuguese	15th	Cape Verde islands, Brazil, Madagascar
Bernal Díaz del Castillo	Spanish	16th	Mexico
David Douglas	Scottish	19th	Pacific Northwest
Sir Francis Drake	English	16th	circumnavigation
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne	French	18th	Australasia, southern Indian Ocean
Jules Dumont d'Urville	French	19th	Australasia, Antarctica

E

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Gil Eanes	Portuguese	15th	northwest African coast
Juan Sebastián Elcano	Spain	16th	completed Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation
Erik the Red	Viking	10th	Greenland
Leif Ericson	Viking	early 11th	Vinland (Newfoundland)
Pedro Escobar	Portuguese	15th	São Tomé and Príncipe islands
George Everest	Welsh	19th	India

F

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Edmund Fanning	American	18th/19th	Oceania
Ibn Farrukh	Andalusian	10th	Americas, Atlantic Ocean, Canary islands
Sir Ranulph Fiennes	English	20th	Arctic, Antarctica
António Fernandes	Portuguese	15th	west African coast
Baltazar Fernandes	Portuguese	17th	Brazil
Duarte Fernandes	Portuguese	16th	Thailand
Matthew Flinders	English	18th/19th	Australia, Tasmania
Alexander Forbes	Scottish	19th	California
John Franklin	English	19th	Northwest Passage
John C. Frémont	American	19th	Oregon Trail, Sierra Nevada
Louis de Freycinet	French	19th	western Australia, Oceania

G

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Alfons Gabriel	Austrian	20th	Iran
Yuri Gagarin	Russian	20th	Earth orbit
Juan Galindo	mixed	19th	Mesoamerica (Mayan remains)
Estevão da Gama	Portuguese	16th	Indian Ocean
Paulo da Gama	Portuguese	15th	sea route from Europe to India
Vasco da Gama	Portuguese	15th/16th	sea route from Europe to India
Thomas Gann	Irish	19th/20th	Mesoamerica (Mayan remains)
Francis Garnier	French	19th	Mekong River
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes	French Canadian	18th	North American interior
Romolo Gessi	Italian	19th	the Nile, Sudan
Ernest Giles	Australian	19th	central Australia
André Gonçalves	Portuguese	15th/16th	Brazil
Antão Gonçalves	Portuguese	15th	west African coast
Lopes Gonçalves	Portuguese	15th	Atlantic Ocean
James Augustus Grant	Scottish	19th	eastern Africa
João Grego	Portuguese	15th	African coast
Juan de Grijalva	Spanish	16th	Mexico, Nicaragua

H

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Hanno the Navigator	Carthaginian	6th BCE	west African coast
Hannu	ancient Egyptian	(c.2750 BCE)	eastern Africa
Dirk Hartog	Dutch	17th	western Australian coast
Ahmed Pasha Hassanein[3]	Egyptian	20th	Oweinat and the Sahara
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden	American	19th	Rocky Mountains and the western United States
Sven Hedin	Swedish	19th/20th	central Asia
Louis Hennepin	Belgian/French	17th	North American interior
William Lewis Herndon	American	19th	Valley of the Amazon
Bjarni Herjulfsson	Viking	10th	North America
Thor Heyerdahl	Norwegian	20th	anthropological ocean voyages
Sir Edmund Hillary	New Zealand	20th	Mount Everest, Antarctica
Himilco the Navigator	Carthaginian	6th BCE	northwestern coast of Europe
Clement Hodgkinson	English	19th	New South Wales (Australia)
Hong Bao	Chinese	15th	South Shetland Islands, South Atlantic
Oliver Van Hoogstraten	English	18th	South America, Europe (central and eastern), Middle East, Cacao Islands, Zanzibar
Cornelis de Houtman	Dutch	16th	sea route from Europe to Indonesia
Frederick de Houtman	Dutch	16th/17th	western Australian coast
William Hovell	English	19th	southern New South Wales
Henry Hudson	English	17th	Northwest Passage, Hudson River and Hudson Bay
Alexander von Humboldt	German	19th	Latin America, Siberia
Hamilton Hume	Australian	19th	Australian interior
James S. Hutchinson	American	20th	Sierra Nevada (U.S.)

I

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
João Infante	Portuguese	15th	African coast
Helge Ingstad	Norwegian	20th	Newfoundland, Greenland, Alaska

K

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Thorfinn Karlsefni	Icelandic	early 11th	Vinland
Johann Karl Ehrenfried Kegel	German	19th	Kamchatka
George Kennan	American	19th/20th	Russia[4]
Edmund Kennedy	British/Australian	19th	Australian interior
Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad	Andalusian	9th	Americas, Atlantic Ocean
Ferdinand Konščak	Croatian	18th	Baja California peninsula
Pyotr Kozlov	Russian	early 20th	Mongolia, Tibet

L

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Richard Lemon Lander	British	early 19th	west Africa (Niger and Benue Rivers)
Jean-François de Galaup	French	18th	Pacific Rim
Anthony de la Roché	English	17th	Antarctica
João Fernandes Lavrador	Portuguese	15th/16th	Labrador
Joseph N. LeConte	American	20th	Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
Albert von Le Coq	German	19th/20th	central Asia
John Ledyard	American	18th	Australasia, Oceania, Russia
Miguel López de Legazpi	Spanish	16th	Philippines
Ludwig Leichhardt	Prussian	19th	Australian interior
Gaspar de Lemos	Portuguese	15th	Brazil
Dragutin Lerman	Croatian	19th/20th	Congo
Meriwether Lewis	American	18th/19th	western United States
David Livingstone	Scottish	19th	southern and eastern Africa

M

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Alexander Mackenzie	Scottish	18th/19th	Canada
Ferdinand Magellan	Portuguese	15th/16th	circumnavigation
Teoberto Maler	German-Italian	19th	Mesoamerica (Mayan remains)
George Mallory	English	early 20th	Mount Everest
Lancelotto Malocello	Italian	13th/14th	Lanzarote (Canary Islands)
Lourenço Marques	Portuguese	16th	Mozambique
Álvaro Martins	Portuguese	15th	Newfoundland, Cape of Good Hope
Pedro Mascarenhas	Portuguese	16th	Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia
John Minor Maury	American	19th	Darién Gap
Douglas Mawson	Australian	20th	Antarctica
Álvaro de Mendaña	Spanish	16th	Pacific Ocean
Archibald Menzies	Scottish	18th/19th	Pacific Ocean, circumnavigation
Thomas Mitchell	Scottish	19th	Australian interior
John Moresby	English	19th	New Guinea coast

N

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Fridtjof Nansen	Norwegian	19th/20th	Arctic
Nehsi	ancient Egyptian	15th BCE	Land of Punt
Jean Nicolet	French	17th	Northwest Territory (United States)
Joseph Nicollet	French/American	19th	Mississippi and Missouri Rivers
Afanasiy Nikitin	Russian	15th	India
António Noli	Portuguese	15th	Cape Verde islands
Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld	Finnish/Swedish	19th	Arctic
Tenzing Norgay	Nepalese	20th	Mount Everest
Fernão de Noronha	Portuguese	15th/16th	Atlantic Ocean
João da Nova	Portuguese	16th	Atlantic and Indian Oceans
Paulo Dias de Novais	Portuguese	16th	Angola

O

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Sebastián de Ocampo	Spanish	early 16th	Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico
Peter Skene Ogden	Canadian	early 19th	Snake River country, western United States
Francisco de Orellana	Spanish	16th	South America, Amazon River
John Oxley	English	early 19th	Australia[5]

P

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Mungo Park	Scottish	18th/19th	west Africa (Niger River)
William Parry	English	19th	Arctic
Robert Peary	American	19th/20th	Arctic
Paul Pelliot	French	19th/20th	central Asia
Duarte Pacheco Pereira	Portuguese	15th	Atlantic Ocean, Brazil
Bartolomeu Perestrelo	Portuguese	15th	Madeira Islands
Auguste Piccard	Swiss	20th	Earth's atmosphere, the deep sea
Jacques Piccard	Swiss	20th	the deep sea
Zebulon Pike	American	early 19th	southern Louisiana Purchase (United States)
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda	Spanish	early 16th	Gulf Coast
Serpa Pinto	Portuguese	19th	southern Africa
Fernão Mendes Pinto	Portuguese	16th	India, Far East, Japan
Martin Alonzo Pinzón	Spanish	15th	Caribbean
Vicente Yáñez Pinzón	Spanish	15th/16th	Caribbean, Brazil
Luís Pires	Portuguese	15th	abortive voyage to Brazil
Francisco Pizarro	Spanish	16th	Hispaniola, Panama, Peru
Fernão do Pó	Portuguese	15th	west African coast
Marco Polo	Venetian	13th/14th	China, Mongol Empire
Peter Pond	American	18th/19th	Canadian interior
Gaspar de Portolà	Spanish	18th	Alta and Baja California
John Wesley Powell	American	19th	western United States
Nathaniel Hale Pryor	American	19th	western United States
Nikolai Przhevalsky	Russian	19th	central Asia
Pytheas	ancient Greek	4th BCE	northern Europe

Q

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Pedro Fernández de Quirós	Portuguese	16th/17th	Oceania

R

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
John Rae	Scottish	19th	Northwest Passage, Canadian Arctic
Walter Raleigh	English	16th/17th	Virginia, the Orinoco river
Diogo Rodrigues	Portuguese	16th	Mascarene Islands
Cândido Rondon	Brazilian	19th/20th	Brazilian interior (Amazon Basin)
James Clark Ross	Scottish	19th	Arctic, Antarctic
Henry Russell	Irish	19th	Pyrenees

S

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Francisco Serrão	Portuguese	16th century	Indonesia
Sándor Kőrösi Csoma	Hungarian	early 19th	Tibet
João de Santarém	Portuguese	15th	São Tomé and Príncipe islands
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa	Spanish	16th	Solomon Islands
Georg August Schweinfurth	German/Russian	19th	East and Central Africa
Robert Falcon Scott	English	19th/20th	Antarctica (South Pole)
Scylax of Caryanda	ancient Greek	6th BCE	Indus River, Indian Ocean, Red Sea
Tibor Sekelj	Croat	20th	Argentina
Mirko and Stjepan Seljan	Croat	early 20th	Ethiopia, South America
Ernest Shackleton	Anglo-Irish	early 20th	Antarctica
Eric Shipton	English	20th	Mount Everest, southern Patagonia
Diogo Silves	Portuguese	15th	Azores
Pêro de Sintra	Portuguese	15th	west African coast, Sierra Leone
William Smith	English	early 19th	South Shetland Islands
Hernando de Soto	Spanish	16th	Central America, southern United States
Martim Afonso de Sousa	Portuguese	16th	Brazilian interior
John Hanning Speke	English	19th	eastern Africa
William Grant Stairs	Canadian	19th	central Africa
Henry Morton Stanley	Welsh	19th	eastern Africa
Marc Aurel Stein	Hungarian/British	19th/20th	central Asia
John Lloyd Stephens	American	19th	Middle East, Mesoamerica (Mayan remains)
Paweł Strzelecki[6]	Polish/British	19th	the Americas, Australia (Gippsland)
John McDouall Stuart	Scottish/Australian	19th	Australian interior
Charles Sturt	English	19th	Australian interior
Ignacije Szentmartony	Croat	18th	Amazon River

T

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Abel Tasman	Dutch	17th	Australasia, including Tasmania
Pedro Teixeira	Portuguese	17th	Amazon River
Tristão Vaz Teixeira	Portuguese	15th	Madeira Islands
Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir	Icelandic	c.11th	North America
Harold William Tilman	English	20th	Himalayas, Patagonia
Yermak Timofeyevich	Russian[7]	16th	Siberia
Luis Váez de Torres	Portuguese	17th	Australasia
Nuno Tristão	Portuguese	15th	west African coast, Guinea-Bissau

U

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Andrés de Urdaneta	Spanish	16th	Manila Galleon route

V

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
George Vancouver	English	18th	Pacific coast of North America[8]
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes	French Canadian	18th	western Canada
Gonçalo Velho	Portuguese	15th	Azores
Giovanni da Verrazzano	Italian	early 16th	East Coast of the United States
Amerigo Vespucci	Italian	15th/16th	eastern South American coast, Caribbean
Ruy López de Villalobos	Spanish	16th	Pacific Ocean, Philippines
Willem de Vlamingh	Flemish/Dutch	17th	southwest Australian coast

W

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Jean-Frédéric Waldeck	French	19th	Mesoamerica (Mayan remains)
Thomas Walker	English	18th	eastern United States[9]
Langdon Warner	American	early 20th	the Silk Road
Harry de Windt	French	19th/20th	Eurasia

Y

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Sir Francis Younghusband	British	19th/20th	central Asia

Z

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
João Gonçalves Zarco	Portuguese	15th	Madeira Islands
Zhang Qian	Chinese	2nd BCE	central Asia
Zheng He	Chinese Muslim	15th	South Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle East, East African coast, possibly Americas

Footnotes

1. Giovanni Caboto.
2. Cristoforo Colombo.
3. Hassanein Bey
4. Kamchatka, Caucasus, Siberia.
5. New South Wales, southeastern Queensland.
6. Sir Paul de Strzelecki.
7. Cossack.
8. U.S. Pacific Coast, Pacific Northwest.
9. Allegheny Mountains, Cumberland Plateau.

See also

★ Astronaut/Cosmonaut

★
★ International Space Station

★ Conquistador

★ Explorations

★ List of maritime explorers

★ Travel literature