The Great Explorers

Penetrating biographies written by a group of distinguished travel writers, broadcasters, and historians reveal the lives, motives, and passions of forty major explorers in history. It has always been mankind’s gift, or curse, to be inquisitive, and through the ages people have been driven to explore the limits of the worlds known to them—and beyond. Here are the stories of forty of the world’s greatest explorers from Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. These are men and women who changed our perception of the world through their courageous adventures. Organized thematically, the book opens with the oceanic journeys of five hundred years ago, when the great era of recorded exploration began. The following sections look at The Land, Rivers, Polar Ice, Deserts, Life on Earth, and New Frontiers. Many of these explorers recounted their journeys in vivid firsthand accounts; others were superb artists or photographers. The book features quotes from their journals and reports, and it is illustrated with paintings, photographs, engravings, and maps, so that we can experience their adventures through their own eyes and in their own words. Featured explorers include: Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, James Cook, Lewis and Clark, Richard Burton, Samuel de Champlain, David Livingstone, Roald Amundsen, Gertrude Bell, Alexander von Humboldt, Yuri Gagarin, and Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

When a famous explorer goes missing in the North Pole, his son, Tom, decides he must find him. And so a daring adventure begins across the treacherous icy terrain of the North Pole. Will Tom be able overcome the many challenges ahead and find his father?

This abridgement of the late Samuel Eliot Morison's magnum opus, The European Discovery of America, which the Journal of Southern History called "an epic work of true grandeur," and the Virginia Quarterly Review considered "a great book by a great historian," preserves the originality, scholarship, and vivid descriptions of the original volumes.

Recounts the harrowing adventures of over forty courageous pioneers such as Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, David Livingston, Robert Scott, and Neil Armstrong.

Travel through time learning about great explorers.

Join the explorers and heroes that have dared to go where no-one has before. DK Reader Great Explorers is packed with fascinating facts about heroic explorers for kids just beginning to read fluently with support. From historical explorers such as Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus, to modern explorers like Bear Grylls and Erik Weihenmayer, this book covers all bases for kids interested in exploration. DK's innovative range of levelled readers combines a highly visual approach with non-fiction narratives that children will love reading. DK Reader Great Explorers is a Level 2 reader, Beginning to Read, offering a delightful narrative for young children to encourage an interest in and desire to read. Simple sentences are used with an emphasis on frequently used words with strong visual clues and labels introducing and reinforcing vocabulary. Additional information spreads feature extra facts for kids that build on the topic further. There's also a fun quiz to develop reading comprehension.

From our modern perspective, it's difficult to imagine a time when the earth still contained mysteries and men headed out in wooden boats on journeys into the unknown. But that was not the case during the Age of Exploration. The Great Explorers tells the dramatic stories of the four men whose expeditions helped define this era: Bartolomeu Dias, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan. They were demanding and imperfect leaders, single-minded in the pursuit of their goals. Their exploits on the high seas changed the course of civilization and helped create the modern world.