It has always been mankind’s gift, or curse, to be inquisitive, and through the ages people have been driven to explore the limits of the worlds known to them - and beyond.

Here are the stories of forty of the world’s greatest explorers from Europe, America, Asia, and Australia, available for the first time in paperback. These are men and women who changed our perception of the world through their courageous adventures. Organized thematically, the book opens with the oceanic journeys of five hundred years ago, when the great era of recorded exploration began.

Many of these explorers captured their journeys in vivid firsthand written accounts; others were superb artists or photographers. The book features quotes from their journals and reports, and is illustrated with paintings, photographs, engravings, and maps, so that the reader can experience the explorers’ adventures through their own eyes and in their own words.

Featured explorers include Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, James Cook, Lewis and Clark, Richard Burton, Samuel de Champlain, David Livingstone, Roald Amundsen, Gertrude Bell, Alexander von Humboldt, Yuri Gagarin, and Jacques-Yves Cousteau.