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Explorers

Cameos

Adventures of a Portuguese Poet

Wild-hearted Luis Vaz de Camoes’ years abroad are not well-known, but that hasn’t lessened his legend

William Edgar Geil on the Great Wall at Luowenyu, June 7, 1908. William Lindesay had thumbed through Geil’s book The Great Wall of China, and was stunned by the photographs, particularly one showing Geil near a tower on a remote section of the wall. Lindesay had a photo of himself in that very spot but noticed that in his the tower was missing.

A Yankee in China

William Lindesay follows the trail of forgotten traveler, William Edgar Geil, the first man to traverse the Great Wall of China

Polo wrote of men with dogs’ features (a French illustration, c. 1412), among several other fantastic creatures.

Wonders and Whoppers

Following in Marco Polo’s footsteps through Asia leads our intrepid author to some surprising conclusions

"Getting to the Pacific by ship, without having to go over land, was the biggest challenge of that period," says Helen Nadar. "[Magellan's] the one that solved it" (above, a color engraving).

The Man Who Sailed the World

Ferdinand Magellan’s global journey gave him fame, but took his life

The Astoria Column serves as a memorial for the explorers Lewis and Clark with President Jefferson.

Lewis and Clark: The Journey Ends

The triumphant return of the Lewis and Clark expedition

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Me and Meriwether

The secret diary of William Clark

Vikings sailing to Iceland

The Vikings: A Memorable Visit to America

The Icelandic house of what is likely the first European-American baby has scholars rethinking the Norse sagas

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Splendid Isolation

When the first astronauts to walk on the Moon returned from their July 1969 lunar expedition, they were confined to quarters

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Finally, the Top of the World

A witness to the first ascent of Mount Everest recalls Edmund Hillary’s aplomb, Tenzing Norgay’s grace and other glories of the “last earthly adventure”

Engraving of the Arctic explorer Charles Francis Hall

Arctic Arsenic

Charles Francis Hall was murdered during an expedition that might have taken him to the North Pole decades before Peary. Or was he?

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Looking for Henry Hudson

Set adrift by mutineers during his expedition to find a Northwest Passage, the famous explorer was never heard from again. What was his fate?

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