Foreword by Levison Wood, bestselling author of Walking the Nile A comprehensive, fascinating and inspiring gallery of the great adventures that changed our world.

Discover the stories and follow the journeys of more than 20 of the world’s most heroic and extraordinary explorers, including Ibn Battuta, Zheng He, Mary Kingsley, Norgay and Hillary, Ellen MacArthur and Neil Armstrong. Throughout history, explorers have bravely ventured out into the unknown to discover new lands, seek treasure, make scientific discoveries or simply achieve something that’s never been done before. Amazing Expeditions will take readers on a thrilling voyage over land, sea, sky and space. Some of the journeys were triumphs and others ended in failure and tragedy, but each is a riveting story and a lesson in perseverance and grit that may well inspire a new generation of adventurers.

Explorer and survival expert Ed Stafford looks at 25 of the greatest expeditions in history and what it takes to survive mentally and physically.

A trek through Central America from the author of Walking the Himalayas, “just the kind of guy you want with you on an adventure” (The Washington Post). Beginning in the Yucatán—and moving south through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama—Wood’s journey takes him from sleepy barrios to glamorous cities to Mayan ruins lying unexcavated in the wilderness. Wood encounters indigenous tribes in Mexico, revolutionaries in a Nicaraguan refugee camp, fellow explorers, and migrants heading toward the United States. The relationships he forges along the way are at the heart of his travels—and the personal histories, cultures, and popular legends he discovers paint a riveting history of Mexico and Central America. While contending with the region’s natural obstacles like quicksand, flashfloods, and dangerous wildlife, he also partakes in family meals with local hosts, learns to build an emergency shelter, negotiates awkward run-ins with policemen, and witnesses the surreal beauty of Central America’s landscapes, from cascading waterfalls and sunny beaches to the spectacular ridgelines of the Honduran highlands. Finally, Wood attempts to cross one of the world’s most impenetrable borders: the Darién Gap route from Panama into South America, a notorious smuggling passage and the wildest jungle he has ever navigated. A Sunday Times bestseller and longlisted for the Banff Mountain Book Award for adventure travel, Walking the Americas is a thrilling personal tale, an accomplished piece of cultural reportage, and a breathtaking journey across some of the most diverse and unpredictable regions on earth. “A thrilling narrative trek . . . [Wood] elevates this already fascinating landscape with lively prose that combines travel journal with history lessons, memoir, and survivalist handbook.”—Booklist

A lively collection of the adventurous stories of the greatest explorers in history. Ferdinand Magellan, Genghis Khan, Thor Heyerdahl, Amelia Earhart, and Neil Armstrong: these are some of the greatest travelers of all time. This book chronicles their stories and many more, describing epic voyages—from early trips through the great port city of Alexandria to the latest journeys into space. In antiquity, we follow Alexander the Great to the Indus and Hannibal across the Alps; in medieval times, we trek beside Genghis Khan and Ibn Battuta. The Renaissance eventually led to Columbus visiting the Americas and to the circumnavigation of the world. In the following centuries, global maps are filled in by Abel Tasman, Vitus Bering, and James Cook. Journeys specifically made for scientific discoveries, most famously by Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin, begin. In modern times, the ends of the earth were reached—including both poles and the world’s highest mountain. Editor Robin Hanbury-Tenison leads an incredible team of fifty-two contributors, including Robert Ballard and Ranulph Fiennes, who relate firsthand experiences with the journeys and places they describe. The Great Journeys in History chronicles the stories of bold, early travelers who explored the unexplored and who set out into the unknown, bringing alive the romance and thrill of adventure.

Live and see the world through the eyes of 50 of the world's greatest explorers and their trusty companions! This book for kids is brimming with first-person accounts of gripping adventures in explorers' own words. Find exciting tales complemented by rare maps, specially commissioned photographs, and artworks that re-create history's greatest expeditions. Get ready to take a leap into the unknown… An adventure book that will surely rival even the most thrilling adventure movies! You'll meet some of the most famous explorers and adventurers of all time in this exciting non-fiction storybook for children. Great explorers have one thing in common - a desire to leap into the unknown, no matter the dangers it presents. This book will take you through Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the world 500 years ago to Barbara Hillary's treks to the North and South poles while in her seventies, and beyond. This knowledge book documents the stories of men and women who rewrote our understanding of the world and inspired us by pushing the boundaries of human capability. A kid's educational book that looks at the towering achievements of more than 50 explorers from all walks of life in great detail. See sensational cross-sections revealing the amazing detail inside Spanish galleons, lost cities, and spaceships. Magnificent photographs highlight the artifacts and relics they found along the way, while hand-drawn maps reveal their intrepid journeys in such detail, you feel as though you could be walking in their very footsteps. It is a glorious introduction to history's most famous trailblazers - people whose courage opened frontiers turned voids into maps, forged nations, connected cultures, and added to humankind's knowledge of the world by leaps and bounds. Packed with jaw-dropping fun facts about the world and written so beautifully it will get your heart racing. Explorers is the perfect kid's book for any young mind with an avid sense of adventure! Explore Unknown Waters – Take To The Skies – Investigate Our Planet! For centuries, explorers have been unable to resist the secrets of the sea. We have looked toward the skies and stars since the beginning of time. Through dense jungles, dry desserts, and frozen mountains we have pushed the very limits of human endurance in the name of exploration and adventure! These tales are not for the faint of heart - these adventurers faced challenges that threatened their very survival! Their courage has allowed us to collect a wealth of knowledge about our awe-inspiring universe. Set sail to faraway frozen lands, defy gravity and take to the skies, and investigate our planet through the stories of those who came before us. Happy exploring! Learn about the explorers who defied the so-called possibilities of their time in: - Sea & Ice - Air & Space - And Land

This is a book about one of the first recorded pilgrims who climbed Mount Sinai; it’s about Amelia Earhart, the famous American aviator whose story and disappearance continues to capture the world’s imagination. It’s the story of a doomed expedition to discover the North West Passage, and the tale of Marco Polo, who remained at the court of the Kublai Khan for an incredible 17 years. The 50 Greatest Explorers in History brings to life the pioneers in aviation flying thousands of miles with the most basic of maps in open cockpits, exposed to the elements and the unrelenting smell of petrol fumes. They travel by steamboat, on horseback, by rickshaw, motorbike, train, swim with piranhas, embark into black nothingness in new spacecraft, explore by Jeep, yachts, tea boats and elephants, disguise themselves as men, take canoes and use innovative, advanced technological scuba equipment. Going where in many cases, no man or woman had ever gone before, some women featured in this books were often denied respect, acknowledgment, or recognition and they determined to break the ‘men's club’ mentality of global exploration from which they were excluded.