Chapter one. Exploring

Thousands of years ago, early people knew about only a very small part of the world. Today we know a lot more, and some of our information comes from explorers. Explorers have changed the world!

Why Do People Explore?

Early people traveled around to find food and water. Most explorers travel because they are curious and want to discover new places and to learn new things. Some early explorers hoped to get rich by discovering new plants, animals, or treasures, and by selling them when they got home. Today, explorers travel to have an adventure, to learn more about remote places, to find something new to help science, or maybe to be famous.

Where Do People Explore?

Early explorers wanted to find new places or people. They crossed land and explored deserts, forests, rivers, and mountains. Then they started to explore the oceans. Today, many explorers want to be the first to go somewhere a new way. Some try to find a different route, or look for new ways to travel. Others want to be the youngest, the fastest, or the first to do something, for example, climb a mountain.

An Italian explorer called Reinhold Messner was the first person to climb all 14 mountains that are more than 8,000 meters high.

How Do People Explore?

Early explorers used only the stars to find their way. Explorers wanted to share what they found, so they wrote about their journeys and made maps. On the maps they drew mountains, rivers, and other things that they had seen, to make it easier for other travelers to follow the same route.

About 2,200 years ago, Chinese people invented the compass. A compass always points north, so it tells you which direction you are traveling in. GPS instruments that use satellites help modern explorers to find out where they are.

Why Is Exploring Important?

Information from some early explorers has helped people to make maps to show what the world is like. The things that they wrote tell us what life was like a long time ago in the places that they visited.

Explorers have learned about new plants and animals, discovered new materials, and learned new languages. They have also discovered inventions, and different ways of doing things, for example, new ways of farming.

Modern explorers are still finding new things. Scientists hope that in the future, they will find cures for many diseases in the rainforests and the oceans.

Chapter two. Early Explorers

Early people traveled around to look for food, but they weren’t explorers. Explorers go from their home land to discover something about another place, and then they come back and tell people what they found.

Early People

People have lived in most parts of the world for thousands of years. Scientists think that early people started in Afr

Chapter one. Exploring

Thousands of years ago, early people knew about only a very small part of the world. Today we know a lot more, and some of our information comes from explorers. Explorers have changed the world!

Why Do People Explore?

Where Do People Explore?

An Italian explorer called Reinhold Messner was the first person to climb all 14 mountains that are more than 8,000 meters high.

How Do People Explore?

Why Is Exploring Important?

Modern explorers are still finding new things. Scientists hope that in the future, they will find cures for many diseases in the rainforests and the oceans.

Chapter two. Early Explorers

Early People

People have lived in most parts of the world for thousands of years. Scientists think that early people started in Africa and traveled to Asia. By about 40.000 years ago, there were people in almost every part of Africa, Asia, and Europe. By about 15.000 years ago they moved into America.

Famous Early Explorers

Zhang Qian was an early explorer from China.

He explored many other parts of Asia more than 2,100 years ago. Other people followed his route to trade silk from Asia with things from Europe. The route that he took is now called the Silk Road.

Marco Polo was an explorer from Venice, now in Italy. In 1271, he traveled from Europe to China. When he returned to Italy 24 years later, he told people about inventions like paper, money, pasta, and ice cream.

From about 1325 a Moroccan explorer, Ibn Battuta, explored North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

He traveled 120,000 kilometers.

Famous Ocean Explorers

Most early explorers traveled over land, but later, explorers traveled over the ocean. The first explorer to sail from China was Zheng He. In 1405, he sailed south to Indonesia and then across the Indian Ocean and down the east coast of Africa.

A Portuguese explorer, Bartolomeu Dias, was the first explorer to travel west from Europe by ship.

In 1488, he sailed from Portugal around the south of Africa. Ten years later another Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, sailed even further and reached India.

Christopher Columbus was an explorer from Genoa, now in Italy. He sailed west from Europe. He reached the West Indies in 1492 and thought he was near India, but he was near a place that no one in Europe knew about — America!

A Portuguese explorer called Ferdinand Magellan was the first explorer to travel to Asia by sailing west from Spain. In 1520 he sailed around South America and across the Pacific Ocean.

In 1616, some Dutch explorers discovered the west of Australia. In 1642 another Dutch sailor called Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand.

Antarctica was the last continent to be explored.

A British sailor called James Cook explored a lot of places. In 1773, he was the first explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle, but he didn’t see Antarctica. People think that the first explorers to land on Antarctica were led by a Norwegian explorer called Henryk Bull in 1895.

Chapter three. Exploring the Past

There are lots of people who explore the past. This helps scientists to understand what is happening on Earth today.

How Earth Was Made

Geologists are scientists who study rocks to learn how Earth was made and how it has changed. They discovered that Earth is made of hot liquid rock that is covered by big pieces of solid rock called plates.

The plates can move, and when they crash into each other, they can push up and make a mountain or a volcano, or they can cause an earthquake. Scientists study how the plates move to try to tell when earthquakes will happen or when volcanoes will erupt.

Plants and Animals in the Past

When ancient plants and animals died, they were buried under sand and mud. After a long time, they went hard and changed into fossils. Paleontologists are scientists who study fossils to learn which plants and animals lived on Earth in the past. They have discovered fossilized plants and bones, teeth, eggs, and shells from fish, birds, insects, and other animals that lived up to 500 million years ago. These discoveries give us information about animals that lived a long time ago — like dinosaurs!

Scientists have found fossils of ocean animals at the top of Mount Everest. This means that the rocks on Mount Everest were once under the ocean and were pushed up.

How People Lived in the Past

Archaeologists study ancient places, buildings, bones, or objects, to learn about how people lived in the past. These things tell us what skills and materials people had, what they believed, and what clothes they wore.

Some old buildings, like the Great Wall of China, are easy to see. Sometimes, the things that archaeologists look for have been buried for a long time, and they have to dig them up very carefully.

The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in Egypt was very important. It helped people to understand the Ancient Egyptian alphabet and to learn about life in Ancient Egypt.

Important Discoveries

Many ancient buildings and objects have been found in Central America, for example, in Mexico. By studying these discoveries, archaeologists have learned a lot about how the Mayan people lived about 2,000 years ago, and how the Aztec people lived about 500 years ago.

At Mohenjo Daro, now in Pakistan, archaeologists have found houses from 4,500 years ago with toilets and bathrooms!

Many important discoveries have also been found in caves. In 2009, an archaeologist called Quirino Olivera found cave paintings more than 6,000 years old in the Andes. Cave paintings at Kakadu National Park in Australia tell archaeologists about people and animals who lived there up to 23,000 years ago.

Chapter four. Deserts

A desert is an area of land where less than 25 centimeters of rain falls every year. At the moment about 30% of the land on Earth is part of a desert, but deserts are getting bigger.

Different Types of Desert

There are four types of desert. They form in different ways near the equator, near the ocean, near mountains, or inland. Only 25% of deserts are sandy, and the rest are made from stones. All deserts are very dry, but they can be hot or cold. Antarctica is a desert. It’s very cold, but it doesn’t snow there very often. The largest hot desert in the world is the Sahara Desert in Africa.

Why Do People Explore Deserts?

People have explored deserts for many years. Early desert explorers went to find things to trade, or new trade routes. Not much grows in the desert, but underground there can be salt, oil, gold, or precious stones like diamonds. Today, explorers want to learn about the people who live in deserts, and some just want an adventure!

Archaeologists have found villages buried under the sand. In 1922, an American explorer, Roy Chapman Andrews, found lots of dinosaur bones in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

Explorers keep discovering new things in the desert because the wind blows the sand around and changes the landscape!

Desert Explorers

Many early desert explorers wanted to be the first to travel all the way across a desert. The first person to travel across the Sahara Desert was a French explorer called Rene Caille. In 1828 he traveled across the Sahara with camels because they can walk a long way without food or water.

In 1887 a British explorer, Francis Younghusband, crossed the Gobi Desert in 70 days. The first women explorers to cross the Gobi Desert were British explorers, Mildred Cable, Evangeline French, and Francesca French, who traveled in a mule-cart in about 1926!

The first European explorers went to the coast of Australia, but no one knew what was in the center. In 1860 two British explorers, Robert Burke and William Wills, and an Australian explorer called John King, were the first explorers to cross Australia from the south to the north. They brought camels from India to help them.

The first woman explorer to cross the Australian Desert from east to west was an Australian explorer called Robyn Davidson. In 1977 she traveled 2,735 kilometers by camel from Alice Springs in central Australia to the west coast.

In 1992, American scientists discovered the ‘lost’ city of Ubar on a space radar image. Then some explorers led by a British explorer, Ranulph Fiennes, went to find the city in the desert in Oman.

Chapter five. Rivers and Rainforests

Many parts of the world are hard to explore because they are covered by rainforests or mountains. Explorers often travel by river to get to some of these places.

New Trade Routes

In the past, some governments gave explorers money if they found an easier route to another country, because their country could then earn money by trading things. In 1804, American explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, explored the Missouri River to look for a new trade route to the Pacific Ocean. It took them 18 months, but they made it! They drew maps and wrote about the things they saw and the people they met. In 1542 a Spanish explorer called Francisco de Orellana sailed down the Amazon River from its source to the Atlantic Ocean. He found lots of new materials to trade.

New Discoveries

In 1895, a British explorer called Mary Kingsley traveled along the Ogowe River in Africa to learn about the people there. She also found many new types of fish!

Lots of river explorers wanted to be the first to find the source — where a river starts. Many explorers have tried to find the source of the Nile River in Africa the longest river in the world. They have all returned with different ideas.

Amazing Rainforests

Rainforests are very important. They only cover 6% of the land on Earth, but more than half of all types of animal and plant on Earth live there. Some rainforest trees have more flowers and fruits than any other trees in the world. Some medicines that we use are made from plants from the rainforests, and scientists think there are lots more plants to be discovered.

Sugar, chocolate, coffee, chewing gum, rubber, and many fruits, nuts, and spices come from rainforests.

Rainforest Explorers

Many rainforest explorers are scientists looking for new types of plant or animal. In about 1800 a German explorer, Alexander von Humboldt, and a French explorer, Aime Bonpland, looked for new plants in the South American rainforests. They returned with new information about people and wildlife.

In 1848 two British explorers, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Bates, went to Brazil to look for new insects. Snakes and insects bit them and some people shot at them, but they found 14,712 types of insect including 8,000 new ones!

In the past, explorers only moved along the ground. Today, explorers like this American scientist, Meg Lowman, use special ropes to climb trees and explore the top of the rainforest.

Chapter six. The Arctic and Antarctic

The Arctic and Antarctic were the last places to be explored. Early explorers went to see what was there, and later, others went to look for the minerals and ocean animals that were found by early explorers.

Reaching the Poles

Early explorers wanted to be first to reach the ends of the Earth — the Poles. Modern explorers try to get to the Poles more quickly or by using different vehicles, for example, a hot-air balloon.

Near the Polest, the sun doesn’t go down in summer this is called the midnight sun.

What’s at the Poles?

The Arctic is like a giant ice cube! There’s no land there — just ice and water. The Antarctic has land, too — it’s called Antarctica. In the past, the Antarctic was warm. Scientists have found fossils there of the same plants and animals that they have found in Australia and South America. They also found fossils of eight types of dinosaur! Today there are lots of scientific research stations in Antarctica. Scientists study the wildlife, ice, fossils, weather, and climate to help us to understand more about Earth. There are oil, gas, and minerals under both places, but they are hard to get to through the ice.

The Arctic and the North Pole

The first Arctic explorers came from Asia. They wanted to find new land to live on and animals to hunt. The first European explorers arrived in about 1500. They were looking for a shorter trade route to Asia from Europe through the Arctic.

In 1728, a Danish explorer, Vitus Bering, was the first explorer to find the Northeast Passage around Russia. In 1906, a Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, found a way around the top of Alaska — now called the Northwest Passage.

Most people believe that the first explorer to get to the North Pole was an American explorer, Robert Peary, in 1909.

The Antarctic and the South Pole

Roald Amundsen, and a British explorer, Robert Scott, raced to be first to the South Pole. Amundsen got to the Pole first in December 1911. He used skis and dog sleds, and returned safely with all his men. Scott’s men walked, pulling everything on sleds. They got to the Pole a few weeks later and found that Amundsen’s Norwegian flag was already there.

Sadly, Scott and his team died on the way back.

The first explorers to cross Antarctica were led by a British explorer called Vivian Fuchs in 1958. In 2001 an American explorer, Ann Bancroft, and a Norwegian explorer, Liv Arnesen, were the first women to cross it.

Chapter seven. Mountains

Mountains cover about 25% of Earth. They are made of rocks and soil, and they are much higher than the land around them. They form when underground plates crash together and push the land up. This takes millions of years.

Record-Breaking Mountains

The biggest mountain chain is the Himalayas in Asia. Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, is in the Himalayas. Everest is still growing about 5 millimeters every year.

The longest mountain chain is under the ocean!

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge under the Atlantic Ocean is 16,000 kilometers long. The longest mountain chain on land is the Andes in South America.

Why Do People Explore Mountains?

Geologists look at the rocks in mountains to learn more about how Earth was made. Some mountain explorers have found metals like gold, silver, copper, and tin. They have also found precious stones like rubies and emeralds, and rocks, like granite and limestone. Some mountain plants, like the snow lotus, are used to make medicines.

Mountain archaeologists look for ancient remains on the top of mountains. In 1999, Constanza Ceruti from Argentina was exploring 6,739 meters high at the top of the Llullaillaco Volcano between Argentina and Chile. She and Johan Reinhold found food pots, gold and silver statues, and three Inca mummies that were 500 years old.

Mountain Explorers

Mountain explorers often want to be the first to climb a mountain. A Frenchman called Antoine de Ville climbed Mont Aiguille in the Alps in 1492.

Later, some people gave explorers money to climb mountains to see what was there. Michel Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat climbed Mont Blanc for a prize in 1786. Another French explorer called Marie Paradis was the first woman to climb Mont Blanc in 1808.

The first people to get to the top of Mount Everest were Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal in 1953. About 2,000 people have climbed to the top of Everest, but more than 200 of them never returned. Modern explorers try and find new ways to climb it.

The first woman to get to the top of Everest was a Japanese climber called Junko Tabei in 1975. In 1992 she also became the first woman to climb the highest mountain in each of the seven continents.

The youngest person to climb Everest is a Nepalese girl called Ming Kipa Sherpa. She climbed it with her brother and sister in 2003 when she was just 15 years old.

Chapter eight. Oceans

After exploring most of the land, people started to explore under the oceans. The oceans are enormous — they cover about 70% of Earth. There are still thousands of kilometers of seabed to be explored.

What Do We Know?

There are five oceans, but more than half of all the water in the oceans is in just one ocean — the Pacific Ocean. At first, scientists thought that the seabed was flat, but now we know that there are mountains, valleys, volcanoes, and plains under the water. By studying the seabed, scientists have learned that the oceans started to form 4,000 million years ago. They have found bones from land animals on the seabed, which shows that the sea level is much higher now.

What’s in the Oceans?

The oceans are full of amazing plants and animals. Some ocean plants, like seaweed, can be used to make medicines. Today, scientists know about 25,000 different types of fish. They find more than 100 new types every year.

There are lots of precious things in the oceans. Pearls are jewels that can form inside oyster shells. There are metals like gold, iron, and copper in the seabed, too. More than 20% of all the oil that we use comes from under the oceans.

There’s enough salt in the oceans to cover Earth with up to 150 meters of salt.

Ocean Explorers

Early ocean explorers could only explore for as long as they could breathe. In 1943, two Frenchmen, Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan, invented Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA). This allowed divers to stay underwater for longer and dive deeper than ever before.

In 1960, a Swiss explorer, Jacques Piccard, and an American, Don Walsh, dived down almost 11 kilometers in a small submarine to the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. It’s the deepest that anyone has dived. No one thought anything could live that far down, but they found some new types of fish.

An American explorer called Silvia Alice Earle holds the record for the deepest woman diver in a submersible. She has spent more than 7,000 hours underwater.

What Next?

Modern explorers have better equipment and they can explore further than ever before, but they don’t even have to go anywhere. Today we can send robots to explore places and bring back information!

The oceans are the least explored part of Earth, but there are still things to find in rainforests, mountains to climb, and thousands of places to explore. What part of our world would you like to explore?

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