List of explorers

The following is a list of explorers:

A

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Antonio de Abreu	Portuguese	16th	Indonesia
William Adams	British	17th	Japan
Charles Albanel	French	17th	Canada
Afonso de Albuquerque	Portuguese	16th	Asia
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin	American	20th	the Moon
Pêro de Alenquer	Portuguese	15th/16th	Indian Ocean
Jean Alfonse (João Afonso)	Portuguese (Luso-French)	15th/16th	Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, possibly Australia; Brazil, North America
Benedict Allen	British	20th/21st	various
Diego de Almagro	Spanish	16th	Peru, Chile
László Almásy	Hungarian	19th/20th	Africa
Francisco de Almeida	Portuguese	16th	India
Lourenço de Almeida	Portuguese	15th	Sri Lanka, India
Pedro de Alvarado	Spanish	16th	Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras
Francisco Álvares	Portuguese	16th	Ethiopia
Gonçalo Álvares	Portuguese	15th	Gough Island, Namibia
Jorge Álvares	Portuguese	16th	China
Roald Amundsen	Norwegian	early 20th	South Pole, Antarctica, Northwest Passage
José Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta	Portuguese	19th	Gough Island
William "Bill" Anders	American	20th	first to fly to the Moon
Charles John Andersson	Swedish	19th	Southern Africa
António de Andrade	Portuguese	16th/17th	India, Tibet
Fernão Pires de Andrade	Portuguese	15th	Ming China
Salomon August Andrée	Swedish	19th	Arctic
Roy Chapman Andrews	American	20th	China, Mongolia
Dominick Arduin	French	20th/21st	North Pole
Henryk Arctowski	Polish	20th	Antarctic, South America
Neil Armstrong	American	20th	the Moon (first man on the moon)
Ingólfur Arnarson	Norse	9th	Iceland
Vladimir Arsenyev	Russian	20th	Far East
Pêro de Ataíde	Portuguese	16th/17th	Indian Ocean
Vasco de Ataíde	Portuguese	16th/17th	India, Tibet
Vladimir Atlasov	Siberian Cossack	17th	Kamchatka Peninsula
François Xavier Aubry	French Canadian	19th	American Southwest
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	British	19th	Canadian Arctic khoa
William Baffin	British	17th	Northwest Passage
Samuel Baker	British	19th	Africa
Vasco Núñez de Balboa	Spanish	16th	Panama, 'discovered' the Pacific Ocean
Robert Ballard	American	20th	deep sea wrecks, Titanic
Ann Bancroft	American	20th/21st	Arctic, Antarctic
Joseph Banks	British	18th	Newfoundland and Labrador, South Pacific
Giosafat Barbaro	Italian	15th	Black Sea, Near East
Duarte Barbosa	Portuguese	15th/16th	Indian Ocean, 1st circumnavigation (most historians believe that he is the same person accompanying Magellan), became second in command (later co-captain general). Commanded the ship Victoria from the South Atlantic and across the Pacific. Kingdom of Mutapa, India, Bahrein.
Pêro de Barcelos	Portuguese	15th/16th	North America
Afonso Gonçalves Baldaia	Portuguese	15th	Western Sahara
Jeanne Baré	French	18th/19th	Pacific Ocean
Willem Barentsz	Dutch	16th	Northeast Passage, Novaya Zemlya, Svalbard
Heinrich Barth	German	19th	Central and northern Africa
Robert Bartlett	Newfoundlander	early 20th	Arctic
George Bass	Australian	18th	Australia
Henry Walter Bates	British	19th	Amazonia
Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta	Marinid	14th	Africa, Central Asia, China, Europe, Indian subcontinent, Middle East, Russia, Southeast Asia
Nicolas Baudin	French	18th	Australia
William Beebe	American	20th	deep sea
Pyotr Beketov	Russian	17th	Siberia
Gertrude Bell	British	19th/20th	Greater Syria Mesopotamia Asia Minor Arabia
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen	Baltic German	19th	Antarctica
Joseph René Bellot	French	19th	Arctic
Benjamin of Tudela	Navarrese	12th	Syria, Palestine, Baghdad, Persia (Iran), Arabian Peninsula
Móric Benyovszky	Hungarian	18th	northern Pacific Ocean
Vitus Bering	Danish	18th	Northern Pacific Ocean, Bering Strait, Alaska (North America)
Hiram Bingham III	American	20th	Machu Picchu, Peru
Isabella Bird	British	19th/20th	North America Hawaii Japan Korea China Vietnam Singapore Malaysia India Persia Kurdistan Turkey Morocco
John Blashford-Snell	British	20th/21st	various
Adriaen Block	Dutch	early 17th	East Coast of the United States
Nellie Bly	American	19th/20th	trip around the world in 72 days
Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest
Vittorio Bottego	Italian	19th	Somalia
Adam Brand	German	17th	Russia, China
Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza	Italian/French	19th	Congo
Saint Brendan	Irish	6th	Atlantic Ocean, Iceland
Jim Bridger	American	19th	Western United States
William A. Brown	American	20th	Pacific Ocean
James Bruce	British	18th	Algeria, the Middle East, Egypt
William S. Bruce	British	early 20th	Antarctica
Étienne Brûlé	French	17th	Canada
Lafayette Bunnell	American	19th	Yosemite Valley
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt	Swiss	19th	Middle East, Sudan
Robert O'Hara Burke	Irish	19th	Australia
Frederick Russell Burnham	American	19th/20th	Africa, Mexico
Richard Francis Burton	British	19th	East Africa
José de Bustamante y Guerra	Spanish	18th	Pacific Ocean
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	Italian	15th	North American mainland (Canada)
Sebastian Cabot	Italian	15th	Northwest Passage (Canada), Río de la Plata, Paraná River (South America)
João Cabral	Portuguese	16th	Bhutan & Nepal
Pedro Álvares Cabral	Portuguese	15th/16th	Brazil, Madagascar
João Rodrigues Cabrilho	Portuguese	16th	California
Estêvão Cacella	Portuguese	16th	Himalayas
Alvise Cadamosto	Italian	15th	Cape Verde islands
René Caillié	French	19th	North Africa
Álvaro Caminha	Portuguese	15th	São Tomé and Príncipe islands
Pêro Vaz de Caminha	Portuguese	15th	Brazil
Alberto del Canto	Portuguese	15th/16th	Northwestern Mexico
Diogo Cão	Portuguese	15th	west coast of Africa (including the Congo River)
Hermenegildo de Brito Capelo	Portuguese	19th	African continent
John Carpini	Italian	13th	Central Asia, Mongolia
Juan Carrasco	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest
Jan Carstensz	Dutch	17th	New Guinea coast, Gulf of Carpentaria
Jacques Cartier	French	16th	St. Lawrence River
João de Castro	Portuguese	15th	India, Arabian Peninsula & Red Sea
René-Robert Cavelier	French	17th	Mississippi embayment
Thomas Cavendish	British	16th	Virginia, Pacific coast of Central and South America
Harriet Chalmers Adams	American	19th/20th	South America, Asia, South Pacific
Samuel de Champlain	French	16th/17th	Quebec, Great Lakes
Chang Chun	Chinese	13th	Central Asia, Mongolia
Jean Chardin	French	17th	Persia, India
Semion Chelyuskin	Russian	18th	Great Northern Expedition
Vasily Chichagov	Russian	18th	Northern Sea Route
Aleksei Chirikov	Russian	18th	Great Northern Expedition
Fletcher Christian	British	18th	Polynesia
Boris Chukhnovsky	Russian	20th	Arctic
Hugh Clapperton	British	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
Frank Cole	Canadian	20th	Sahara
Christopher Columbus	Italian	15th/16th	Bahamas, Caribbean, Central America, South America (Colombia and Venezuela)
George Comer	American	19th/20th	Arctic
Niccolò Da Conti	Italian	early 15th	India, Southeast Asia
Frederick Cook	American	19th/20th	Arctic
James Cook	British	18th	Australasia, Oceania
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado	Spanish	16th	New Mexico
Diogo Álvares Correia	Portuguese	16th	Brazil
Gaspar Côrte-Real	Portuguese	16th	Newfoundland, Greenland
João Côrte-Real	Portuguese	late 15th	Azores, Newfoundland (Possible exploration of North America in 1473)
Miguel Côrte-Real	Portuguese	16th	Greenland, Newfoundland, Massachusetts
Hernán Cortés	Spanish	16th	Mexico
Juan de la Cosa	Spanish	15th/16th	Caribbean, South America
Thomas Coulter	Irish	19th	Mexico, Alta California
Jean Cousin	French	15th	Possibly the Americas around 1488. Possibly mouth of the Amazon River
Jacques-Yves Cousteau	French	20th	the deep sea
Pêro da Covilhã	Portuguese	15th/16th	India, Ethiopia
Tom Crean	Irish	20th	Antarctica
Andrew Croft	English	20th	Arctic
Tristão da Cunha	Portuguese	16th	Tristan da Cunha islands
Jeremy Curl	British	20th	African continent

D

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
William Healey Dall	American	19th	Alaska, Yukon
William Dampier	English	17th/18th	Australia, Panama, many other locations
Isaac Davis	British	18th	Hawaii
Adrien de Gerlache	Belgian	19th/20th	Antarctica, Arctic
Pierre-Jean De Smet	Belgian	19th	North America
Semyon Dezhnev	Russian	17th	Siberia, Bering Strait (80 years before Vitus Bering)
Bartolomeu Dias	Portuguese	15th	Africa
Diogo Dias	Portuguese	16th	Madagascar, Somalia
Dicuil	Irish	8th	England, Scotland
Karl von Ditmar	Baltic German	19th	Kamchatka
Francis Drake	English	16th	Caribbean, Pacific Coast of North America

E

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Gil Eanes	Portuguese	15th	northwest African coast
Juan Sebastián Elcano	Spanish	16th	completed Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation
Francisco de Eliza	Spanish	18th	Strait of Juan de Fuca and Strait of Georgia
Leif Eriksson	Viking	early 11th	Vinland (Newfoundland) and North American mainland (Canada)
Erik the Red	Viking	10th	Greenland
Pedro Escobar	Portuguese	15th	São Tomé and Príncipe islands
St Vincent Whitshed Erskine	British/South African	19th	Gazaland & Limpopo river
Eudoxus of Cyzicus	ancient Greek	2nd BC	Indian Ocean, attempted circumnavigation of Africa
Euthymenes	ancient Greek	6th BC	Northwest African coast
George Everest	British	19th	India
Evliya Çelebi	Turkish	17th	Turkey, Egypt, Africa, Europe

F

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Ahmad ibn Fadlan	Abbasid Caliphate	10th	Eastern Europe, Middle East, Russia, Scandinavia
Edmund Fanning	American	18th/19th	Oceania
Percy Harrison Fawcett	British	20th	Amazon Rainforest
Álvaro Fernandes	Portuguese	15th	West African coast
Baltasar Fernandes	Portuguese	17th	Brazil
Duarte Fernandes	Portuguese	16th	Thailand
Juan Fernández	Spanish	16th	Juan Fernández Islands, Pacific Ocean
Salvador Fidalgo	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest
Sir Ranulph Fiennes	British	20th/21st	Arctic, Antarctica
Matthew Flinders	British	18th/19th	Australia, Tasmania
Alexander Forbes	British	19th	California
Peter Forsskål	Swedish	18th	Arabian Peninsula
John Franklin	British	19th	Northwest Passage
Simon Fraser	Scottish	18th/19th	British Columbia
John C. Frémont	American	19th	Oregon Trail, Sierra Nevada
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne	French	18th	Oceania
Louis de Freycinet	French	19th	Western Australia, Oceania
Martin Frobisher	English	16th	Northwest Passage, Canada
Xu Fu	Chinese	3rd BC	Japan
Juan de Fuca	Greek-Spanish	16th	Strait of Juan de Fuca, Canada–United States border
Vivian Fuchs	British	20th	Antarctica

G

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Alfons Gabriel	Austrian	20th	Iran
Yuri Gagarin	Soviet	20th	Earth orbit
Dionisio Alcalá Galiano	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest
Juan Galindo	mixed	19th	Mesoamerica (Mayan remains)
Estevão da Gama	Portuguese	16th	Trindade and Martim Vaz islands, Indian Ocean
João da Gama	Portuguese	16th	Hokkaido, Kuril islands, North Pacific, North America
Paulo da Gama	Portuguese	15th	sea route from Europe to India
Vasco da Gama	Portuguese	15th/16th	sea route from Europe to India
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa	Spanish	16th	Solomon Islands
Thomas Gann	Irish	19th/20th	Mesoamerica (Mayan remains)
Aleixo Garcia	Portuguese	16th	Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia
Francisco García Jofre de Loaísa	Spanish	16th	Pacific Ocean
Francis Garnier	French	19th	Mekong River
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
Binot Paulmier de Gonneville	French	15th/16th	Brazil (Santa Catarina)
James Augustus Grant	British	19th	East Africa
João Grego	Portuguese	15th	African coast
Juan de Grijalva	Spanish	16th	Mexico, Nicaragua
Grigory Grumm-Grzhimaylo	Russian	19th-20th	Central Asia, Tuva, Far East
Gonzalo Guerrero	Spanish	16th	Yucatán Peninsula
Mikhail Gvozdev	Russian	18th	First Kamchatka Expedition, Great Northern Expedition
Charles Gwynn	British	19th/20th	Sudan

H

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Hanno the Navigator	Carthaginian	6th BC	West African coast
Hannu	ancient Egyptian	(c. 2750 BC)	East Africa
Gonzalo López de Haro	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest
Alfred Harrison	English	20th	Arctic
Dirk Hartog	Dutch	17th	Western Australian coast
Ahmed Pasha Hassanein	Egyptian	20th	Oweinat and the Sahara
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden	American	19th	Rocky Mountains and the Western United States
Bruno de Heceta	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest
Sven Hedin	Swedish	19th/20th	Central Asia
Matthew Alexander Henson	American	20th	Arctic
Louis Hennepin	Belgian/French	17th	North American interior
Pedro de Heredia	Spanish	16th	Northern Colombia
Bjarni Herjulfsson	Viking	10th	North America
William Lewis Herndon	American	19th	Amazonia
Herodotus	Greek	(c.484-425 BC)	Middle East, North Africa
Thor Heyerdahl	Norwegian	20th	anthropological ocean voyages
Sir Edmund Hillary	New Zealand	20th	Mount Everest, Antarctica
Himilco the Navigator	Carthaginian	6th BC	Northwestern coast of Europe
Hippalus	ancient Greek	1st BC	Indian Ocean
Clement Hodgkinson	British	19th	New South Wales (Australia)
Emil Holub	Czech	19th	Africa
Hong Bao	Chinese	15th	South Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle East, East African coast
Robert Hottot	French	20th	Congo River
Cornelis de Houtman	Dutch	16th	sea route from Europe to Indonesia
Frederick de Houtman	Dutch	16th/17th	Western Australian coast
William Hovell	British	19th	Southern New South Wales
Henry Hudson	British	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.)
Hyecho	Korean	8th	India, Persia and Central Asia

I

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
João Infante	Portuguese	15th	African coast
Helge Ingstad	Norwegian	20th	Newfoundland, Greenland, Alaska
Kurbat Ivanov	Siberian Cossack	17th	Siberia, Russian Far East, discoverer of Lake Baikal
Roberto Ivens	Portuguese	19th	African continent

J

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Cristóvão Jacques	Portuguese	16th	Paraná River, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina
James of Ireland	Irish	14th	Sumatra, China
Willem Janszoon	Dutch	17th	Australia (Queensland)
Anthony Jenkinson	British	16th	Russia, Persia
Louis Jolliet	French Canadian	17th	Mississippi River
Friar Julian	Hungarian	13th	Volga Bulgaria

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
Edmund Kennedy	British/Australian	19th	Australian interior
Robert Kennicott	American	19th	Alaska, Siberia, Yukon and Northern Canada
Yerofey Khabarov	Russian	17th	Second Russian to explore the Amur region
Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad	Andalusian	9th	Atlantic Ocean (possibly Americas)
Eusebio Kino	Italian/German	17th/18th	Californias, Sonora and Arizona
Maria Klenova	Russian	20th	One of the founders of marine geology
Amyr Klink	Brazilian	20th	Antarctica
John Knight	English	17th	Greenland, Labrador
Alexander Kolchak	Russian	20th	Russian Arctic
Ferdinand Konščak	Croatian	17th	Baja California Peninsula
Fyodor Konyukhov	Russian	20-21st	circumnavigation, Explorers Grand Slam, pole of inaccessibility
Otto von Kotzebue	Baltic German	19th	Pacific Ocean
Pyotr Kozlov	Russian	early 20th	Mongolia, Tibet
Pyotr Krenitsyn	Russian	18th	Alaska, Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka Peninsula
Adam Johann von Krusenstern	Baltic German	19th	First Russian circumnavigation

L

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Alexander Gordon Laing	Scottish	early 19th	West Africa (Niger River and Timbuktu)
Pierre Martin de La Martinière	French	17th	Norway, Lapland, northern Russia, Novaya Zemlya, Greenland and Iceland
Richard Lemon Lander	British	early 19th	West Africa (Niger and Benue Rivers)
Grigori Ivanovitch Langsdorff	Prussian	early 19th	Brazil
Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse	French	18th	Pacific Rim
Khariton Laptev	Russian	18th	Great Northern Expedition
Anthony de la Roché	British	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
Jacob Le Maire	Dutch	17th	South Pacific (Cape Horn, Tonga Islands, Wallis and Futuna)
Gaspar de Lemos	Portuguese	15th	Brazil
Alexey Leonov	Soviet	20th	The first human to perform a spacewalk
Dragutin Lerman	Croatian	19th/20th	Congo
Mikhail Levashev	Russian	18th	Alaska, Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka Peninsula
Meriwether Lewis	American	18th/19th	Western United States
Sir Martin Lindsay, 1st Baronet	British	20th	East Greenland
João de Lisboa	Portuguese	15th/16th	Indian Ocean, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina
St. George Littledale	British	19th	Central Asia and North America
David Livingstone	Scottish	19th	Southern and East Africa
Louis-Philippe Loncke	Belgian	21st	Australia, the Andes and Iceland

M

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Alexander Mackenzie	Scottish Canadian	18th/19th	Canada
Ferdinand Magellan	Portuguese	15th/16th	1st circumnavigation, Philippines, Strait of Malacca, Indian Ocean
Alessandro Malaspina	Italian-Spanish	18th	Pacific Ocean
Niall McCann	British	20th	Louisiana
Teoberto Maler	German-Italian	19th	Mesoamerica (Mayan remains)
George Mallory	British	early 20th	Mount Everest
Lancelotto Malocello	Italian	13th/14th	Lanzarote (Canary Islands)
Albert Hastings Markham	British	19th	Arctic
Lourenço Marques	Portuguese	16th	Mozambique
Jacques Marquette	French	17th	Mississippi River
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
Cristóvão de Mendonça	Portuguese	16th	East Asia, Australasia
Pedro de Mendoza	Spanish	16th	South America
Jorge de Menezes	Portuguese	16th	Papua New Guinea
Archibald Menzies	British	18th/19th	Pacific Ocean, circumnavigation
Alexander von Middendorff	Russian-Baltic German	19th	Siberia, Far East, Lapland, Fergana Valley
Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay	Russian	19th	New Guinea
Thomas Mitchell	British	19th	Australian interior
Richard Mohun	American	19th/20th	Congo Free State
Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons	French	16th/17th	North America
George Fletcher Moore	Irish	19th	Australia
John Moresby	British	19th	New Guinea coast
Ivan Moskvitin	Russian	17th	First European to reach the Sea of Okhotsk
Henri Mouhot	French	19th	South East Asia
Francisco Antonio Mourelle	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest and Pacific Ocean
Bimal Mukherjee	Indian	20th	circumnavigation

N

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Gustav Nachtigal	German	19th	Africa
Naddoddur	Norwegian	9th	Iceland
Nain Singh Rawat (Pundit Brothers)	Indian	19th	Tibet, Himalayas and Central Asia
Fridtjof Nansen	Norwegian	19th/20th	Arctic
José María Narváez	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest
Nearchus	ancient Greek	4th BC	Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf
Nehsi	ancient Egyptian	15th BC	Land of Punt
Arthur Henry Neumann	English	19th	Africa
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	Swedish-Finnish	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
Odoric of Pordenone	Italian	early 14th	Persia, India and China
Peter Skene Ogden	Canadian	early 19th	Snake River country, Western United States
Juan de Oñate	Spanish	16th	American Southwest
Francisco de Orellana	Spanish	16th	South America, Amazon River
Íñigo Órtiz de Retes	Spanish	16th	Papua New Guinea
John Oxley	British	early 19th	Australia

P

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Pedro Páez	Spanish	16th/17th	Ethiopia
Mungo Park	British	18th/19th	West Africa (Niger River)
William Parry	British	19th	Arctic
Nathaniel Pearce	British	19th	Ethiopia
Robert Peary	American	19th/20th	Arctic
Paul Pelliot	French	19th/20th	central Asia
Diogo Fernandes Pereira	Portuguese	15th/16th	Madagascar, Mascarenes (Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues)
Duarte Pacheco Pereira	Portuguese	15th	Atlantic Ocean, Brazil
Bartolomeu Perestrelo	Portuguese	15th	Madeira Islands
Juan Pérez	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest
Maksim Perfilyev	Siberian Cossack	17th	Eastern Siberia, first Russian to reach Transbaikalia
Ivan Petlin	Siberian Cossack	17th	First Russian to reach China
Auguste Piccard	Swiss	20th	Earth's atmosphere, the deep sea
Jacques Piccard	Swiss	20th	the deep sea
Zebulon Pike	American	early 19th	Louisiana Purchase (United States)
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda	Spanish	early 16th	Gulf Coast
Fernão Mendes Pinto	Portuguese	16th	India, Far East, Japan
Serpa Pinto	Portuguese	19th	Southern Africa
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, India
Valeri Polyakov	Soviet	20th	The longest continuous spaceflight in history
Juan Ponce de León	Spanish	15th/16th	Florida
Peter Pond	American	18th/19th	Canadian interior
Fedot Popov	Russian	17th	The first European expedition through the Bering Strait
Gaspar de Portolà	Spanish	18th	Alta and Baja California
Sydney Possuelo	Brazilian	20,21st	Amazon
Panayotis Potagos	Greek	19th	Africa
Grigory Potanin	Russian	19th	Inner Asia
John Wesley Powell	American	19th	Western United States
Vassili Poyarkov	Russian	17th	First Russian explorer of the Amur region
Mandil Pradhan	Nepalese	21st	Himalayas
Gavriil Pribylov	Russian	18th	Pribilof Islands
Vasili Pronchishchev	Russian	18th	Great Northern Expedition
Maria Pronchishcheva	Russian	18th	The first female Arctic explorer
Nathaniel Hale Pryor	American	19th	western United States
Nikolai Przhevalsky	Russian	19th	Central Asia
Pytheas	ancient Greek	4th BC	Northern Europe

Q

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós	Portuguese	16th/17th	Oceania
Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada	Spanish	16th	Colombia; quest for El Dorado
Manuel Quimper	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest

R

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
John Rae	Scottish Canadian	19th	Northwest Passage, Canadian Arctic
Sir Walter Raleigh	English	16th/17th	Virginia, the Orinoco river
Knud Rasmussen	Danish	20th	Arctic
Piri Reis	Turkish	15th/16th	Mediterranean Sea
Matteo Ricci	Italian	16th	China
Arthur Rimbaud	French	19th	Horn of Africa (Abyssinia)
Luigi Robecchi	Italian	19th	Africa
Diogo Rodrigues	Portuguese	16th	Mascarene Islands
Nicholas Roerich	Russian	20th	Central Asia, Northeast Asia
Jacob Roggeveen	Dutch	18th	South Pacific (Easter Island)
Cândido Rondon	Brazilian	19th/20th	Brazilian interior (Amazon Basin)
James Clark Ross	British	19th	Arctic, Antarctic
William of Rubruck	Flemish	13th	Central Asia
Henry Russell	Irish	19th	Pyrenees
Ahmad ibn Rustah	Persian	10th	Russia, Scandinavia, Arabia

S

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Álvaro de Saavedra	Spanish	16th	Papua New Guinea, Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands
Edward Sabine	Irish	19th	Arctic
Anatoly Sagalevich	Russian	20th-21st	Explorer of the World Ocean, seabed at the North Pole
Kira Salak	American	20th/21st	Papua New Guinea, Mali, Bhutan
Alonso de Salazar	Spanish	16th	Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean
Gadiel Sánchez Rivera	Peruvian	21st	Amazon, Lake Titicaca
Sándor Kőrösi Csoma	Hungarian	early 19th	Tibet
Yakov Sannikov	Russian	early 19th	New Siberian Islands
João de Santarém	Portuguese	15th	São Tomé and Príncipe islands
Gavril Sarychev	Russian	18-19th	Sea of Okhotsk, Baltic Sea, Aleutian Islands
Martin Sauer	English	late 18th	Siberia, Alaska
Rabban Bar Sauma	Turco-Mongol	13th	Europe, Middle East
Svetlana Savitskaya	Soviet	20th	Second woman in space, first to conduct a spacewalk
Johann Schiltberger	German	15th	Central Asia
Ulrich Schmidl	German	16th	Río de la Plata
Willem Schouten	Dutch	17th	South Pacific (Cape Horn, Tonga Islands, Wallis and Futuna)
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 BC	Indus River, Indian Ocean, Red Sea
Tibor Sekelj	Croat	20th	Argentina
Mirko and Stjepan Seljan	Croat	early 20th	Ethiopia, South America
Frederick Courtney Selous	English	19th	Africa
Symon Semeonis	Hiberno-Norman	14th	Jerusalem, Albania
Gomes de Sequeira	Portuguese	16th	Caroline Islands, Pacific Ocean
João Serrão	Portuguese	15th/16th	1st Circumnavigation (also later its co-captain general); commanded the ship Santiago in the Atlantic and the Concepcion across the Pacific, Strait of Malacca, Indian Ocean
Francisco Serrão	Portuguese	15th/16th	Indonesia
Ernest Shackleton	British	early 20th	Antarctica
Robert Barkley Shaw	British	19th	Central Asia
Eric Shipton	British	20th	Mount Everest, southern Patagonia
Tanaka Shōsuke	Japanese	17th	Mexico
Diogo Silves	Portuguese	15th	Azores
James Simpson (explorer)	British	20th	North Greenland
Pêro de Sintra	Portuguese	15th	West African coast, Sierra Leone
William Smith	British	early 19th	South Shetland Islands
J. Dewey Soper	Canadian	20th	Canadian Arctic
Hernando de Soto	Spanish	16th	Central America, Southern United States
Martim Afonso de Sousa	Portuguese	16th	Brazilian interior
John Hanning Speke	British	19th	East Africa
Hans Staden	German	16th	Brazil
Ed Stafford	British	21st	Amazon
William Grant Stairs	Canadian	19th	Central Africa
Henry Morton Stanley	British	19th	East Africa
Vilhjalmur Stefansson	Canadian	20th	Canadian Arctic
Marc Aurel Stein	Hungarian/British	19th/20th	Central Asia
John Lloyd Stephens	American	19th	Middle East, Mesoamerica (Mayan remains)
Paweł Strzelecki	Polish/British	19th	the Americas, Australia (Gippsland)
John McDouall Stuart	British Australian	19th	Australian Interior
Charles Sturt	British	19th	Australian Interior
King Gardar Svavarsson	Swedish	9th	Iceland
Otto Sverdrup	Norwegian	19th/20th	Arctic
Ignacije Szentmartony	Croat	18th	Amazon River

T

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Abel Tasman	Dutch	17th	Australasia, including Tasmania
António Raposo Tavares	Portuguese	17th	Paraguay River, part of the Andes mountain range, Grande River, Mamoré River, Madeira River, Amazon River (Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia) Union of La Plata Basin to the Amazon River - circumnavigation of Brazil.
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier	French	17th	Persia, India
Mikhail Tebenkov	Russian	19th	Alaska, Aleutian Islands, Amur River
Pedro Teixeira	Portuguese	17th	Amazon River
Tristão Vaz Teixeira	Portuguese	15th	Madeira Islands
Valentina Tereshkova	Soviet	20th	The first woman in space
Wilfred Thesiger	British	20th	Africa, Middle East
David Thompson	British	18th/19th	Western Canada, Pacific Northwest
Guðríður Þorbjarnardóttir	Icelandic	c.11th	North America
Harold William Tilman	British	20th	Himalayas, Patagonia
Yermak Timofeyevich	Russian	16th	Siberia
Gherman Titov	Russian	20th	First person to orbit the Earth multiple times
Tenjiku Tokubei	Japanese	17th	South East Asia, India
Eduard Toll	Baltic German	19th	Arctic
Luis Váez de Torres	Spanish Galician	16th/17th	Australasia
Nuno Tristão	Portuguese	15th	West African coast, Guinea-Bissau
Hasekura Tsunenaga	Japanese	17th	Mexico, Europe
Benjamin of Tudela	Jewish Navarrese	12th	Mediterranean Sea, Arabian Peninsula, Red Sea, Persian Gulf

U

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

V

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Cayetano Valdés	Spanish	18th	Pacific Northwest
George Vancouver	British	18th	Pacific coast of North America
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes	French Canadian	18th	Western Canada
Ludovico di Varthema	Italian	15th/16th	Arabian Peninsula, Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia
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
Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi	Italian	13th	Africa, in a failed attempt to reach India
Sebastián Vizcaíno	Spanish	16th	Northwest Pacific, California Coast
Willem de Vlamingh	Dutch	17th	Southwest Australian coast
Maarten Gerritsz Vries	Dutch	17th	Northwest Pacific (Hokkaido, Sakhalin)

W

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Lionel Wafer	Welsh	late 17th	Malay Archipelago, Isthmus of Panama
Jean-Frédéric Waldeck	French	19th	Mesoamerica (Mayan remains)
Thomas Walker	British	18th	Eastern United States
Gino Watkins	British	20th	East Greenland & Labrador
Wang Dayuan	Chinese	14th	Southeast Asia, Singapore
Langdon Warner	American	early 20th	the Silk Road
Alfred Wegener	German	early 20th	Greenland
John White	English	15th	Roanoke Island
Jim Whittaker	American	early 20th	Mount Everest, Antarctica
Frederick Whymper	English	19th	Alaska, Kamchatka, Yukon
Charles Wilkes	American	19th	Pacific Ocean
Harry de Windt	French	19th/20th	Eurasia
Fanny Bullock Workman	American	19th/20th	Hymalaya
Ferdinand von Wrangel	Baltic German	19th	Northern Russia

X

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Xuanzang	Chinese	7th	Indian subcontinent, Central Asia

Y

Name	Nationality	Century	Main area/s explored
Yermak Timofeyevich	Russian	16th	Siberia
John Young	British	18th	Hawaii
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 BC	Central Asia
Zheng He	Chinese	15th	South Asia, Southeast Asia, Middle East, East African coast

See also

• Age of Discovery
• Astronaut/Cosmonaut
  • International Space Station
• Bandeirantes
• Conquistador
• Exploration
• Exploration of Asia
• List of explorations
• List of lost expeditions
• List of female explorers and travelers
• List of maritime explorers
• List of Russian explorers
• List of travelers
• Maritime timeline
• Radhanites
• Silk Road
• Spice trade
• The Exploration Museum
• Trans-Saharan trade
• Travel literature