Exploration: Did you mean...?

1598 Map of the Three Arctic Voyages (1594–1596) by Willem Barentsz. Spitsbergen (now Svalbard) is mapped for the first time and indicated as "Het Nieuwe Land" (Dutch for "the New Land"), centre-left.

A map of the world drawn by Juan de la Cosa (c. 1450-1510). Made in 1500 on leather-backed parchment. (National Naval Museum of Madrid)

A marble relief plaque depicting a ship in African waters. 2nd - 3rd century CE. (Archaeological Museum, Sagunto, Spain)

A Depiction of Willem Barentsz's three expeditions in search of the coveted Northeast Passage to Cathay (China) and the Spice Islands. Woodcut. 1598.

A posthumous portrait of the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480-1521) whose expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe in 1519-22. (The Mariner's Museum Collection, Newport News, VA)

A speculative portrait of Henry Hudson (c. 1565 -1611 CE) that was made around 1885. Hudson was an English sea navigator who explored areas of present-day Canada and parts of the modern New York metropolitan area. He was working for the Dutch...

An artist's depiction of Roman soldiers exploring a tropical forest or jungle. From the game Old World.

A portrait of Jaques Cartier (1491-1557 CE) a French-Breton maritime explorer. He was the first European who mapped the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River. He was also the one who named these lands "The Country...

East of the Zagros Mountains, a high plateau stretches off towards India. While Egypt was rising up against the Hyksos, a wave of pastoral tribes from north of the Caspian Sea was drifting down into this area and across into India. By the...

Mansa Musa I was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa from 1312 to 1337. Controlling territories rich in gold and copper, and monopolising trade between the north and interior of the continent, Mali grew extremely wealthy. Mansa Musa...