Contents Great explorers 4
The Northwest Passage
28
New discoveries 6
Mary Kingsley in Africa
30
Explorers in ancient times 8
Livingstone in Africa
32
Hsüan Tsang in India
10
Across Australia
34
12
Amundsen in the Antarctic 36
Marco Polo in China
14
Scott and Shackleton
38
Ibn Battuta
16
Norgay and Hillary
40
Columbus and America
18
Armstrong on the Moon
42
Cortés and Pizarro
20
Modern exploration
44
First around the world
22
Glossary
46
Cook in the Pacific
24
Index
48
Lewis and Clark
26
Viking voyages
Life dates Throughout this book, you will see dates in brackets after an explorer’s name. These tell you when they lived. For example, Marco Polo (1254–1324) means that Marco Polo was born in 1254 and died in 1324.
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Great explorers Have you heard of Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, David Livingstone or Roald Amundsen? They were famous explorers who travelled through deserts and rainforests, over mountains, and across huge oceans and frozen lands to explore new places. They discovered places they did not know existed, and places that nobody had ever been before. These explorers were often away from home for many years. They did not have accurate maps, and they faced terrible weather, disease and hunger. Some explorers survived using their skills, or because they just refused to give up. Others died on their expeditions.
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