Seven great travelers who glorified the Russian Geographical Society. Great Russian travelers

travelers

in the paintings of artists N. Solomin and S. Yakovlev

Brilliant pages in the history of geographical discoveries were written by Russian travelers. They not only studied the vast expanses of the Motherland, but also made discoveries and researches far beyond its borders.

Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev (born around 1605 - died in 1672/3) - a famous explorer and navigator. Served in Tobolsk, Yeniseisk, Yakutsk; went on long and dangerous trips to the rivers Yana, Indigirka, Oymyakon. Departing in 1648 from the Nizhne-Kolyma prison, Dezhnev sailed from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and practically proved the existence of a strait separating Asia from America.

Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen (1779-1862) - famous navigator, prominent scientist. He participated in the expedition of Kruzenshtern and Lisyaneky, then commanded together with M.P. Lazarev in 1819-1821 the sloops Vostok and Mirny. This expedition to the South Pole made a great geographical discovery - it reached the shores of Antarctica, and also conducted extensive research in the equatorial and tropical zones of the Pacific Ocean and made adjustments to sea charts.

Pyotr Petrovich Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky (1827-1914) - a remarkable Russian geographer and traveler. The first Europeans penetrated the hard-to-reach areas of the Central Tien Shan and established that the Chu River does not flow into Issyk-Kul Lake, discovered the sources of the Naryn and Sarydzhaz rivers, the second highest Tien Shan peak - Khan Tengri, huge glaciers covering its slopes.

Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov (1863-1936) was a remarkable Russian traveler and explorer of Central Asia. Participating in the expeditions of N. M. Przhevalsky, M. V. Pevtsov and V. I. Roborovsky, he repeatedly crossed Mongolia and China. From 1899 to 1926 Kozlov led three expeditions to Central Asia. He studied the mountains of the Mongolian Altai, penetrated into the least explored areas of the Tibetan highlands; in the center of the Mongolian deserts he discovered the ancient city of Khara-Khoto; excavated the Khentei-Noinulinsky mounds, enriching science with versatile information about the regions of Central Asia.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay (1846 - 1888) - famous Russian traveler and scientist, anthropologist and ethnographer. He spent twelve years in New Guinea, Malacca, Australia and the Pacific Islands, studying the peoples inhabiting them. The creator of modern anthropology, Miklouho-Maclay was a passionate fighter against racial discrimination and colonial oppression.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky (1839-1888) - the great Russian traveler and geographer. Already after the first expedition to the Ussuri region (1867-1869) he became famous as a talented explorer of distant and little-known lands. He conducted four expeditions to Central Asia, during which he crossed vast expanses from the Sayan Mountains to Tibet and from the Tien Shan to the Khingan.

Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev (1788-1851) - famous navigator, naval commander and research scientist. Together with F. Sh. Bellingshausen, he commanded a remarkable sea expedition that discovered Antarctica. Even before that, he went around the world on the ship "Suvorov", and after sailing to Antarctica he made the third trip around the world, commanding the frigate "Cruiser". The last seventeen years of his life he devoted to the education of Russian sailors and the construction of the Black Sea Fleet.

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Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern (1770-1846) - a remarkable navigator and research scientist. He commanded the first Russian round-the-world expedition from 1803 to 1806. The expedition refined the map of the Pacific Ocean, collected information about the nature and inhabitants of Sakhalin, the Pacific Islands and Kamchatka. Kruzenshtern published a description of his journey and compiled a two-volume atlas of the Pacific Ocean.

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Georgy Yakovlevich Sedov (1877-1914) - a brave navigator, explorer of the Arctic. In 1912 he proposed a trip to the North Pole. Having reached the ship "St. fok” of Franz Josef Land, Sedov made a bold attempt to reach the North Pole by dog sled, but died on the way to his cherished goal.

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Gennady Ivanovich Nevelskoy (1813-1876) - an outstanding researcher of the Far East. He spent about six years in the Amur region, studying its nature. In 1849, while sailing on the Sea of Okhotsk, Nevelskoy proved that Sakhalin was an island separated from the mainland by the navigable Tatar Strait.

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Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev (1863-1956) - a remarkable traveler, the greatest Soviet geologist and geographer. After research in Central Asia (1886) and numerous expeditions to Eastern Siberia, in 1892 the scientist went to Mongolia and China for two years, covering more than thirteen and a half thousand kilometers during this time. Obruchev headed major geological research in Siberia.

Afanasy Nikitin is a Russian traveler, Tver merchant and writer. He traveled from Tvrea to Persia and India (1468-1474). On the way back he visited the African coast (Somalia), Muscat and Turkey. Nikitin's travel notes "Journey Beyond Three Seas" is a valuable literary and historical monument. He is noted for his versatility of observations, as well as religious tolerance, unusual for the Middle Ages, combined with devotion to the Christian faith and native land.

Semyon Dezhnev (1605 -1673)

An outstanding Russian navigator, explorer, traveler, explorer of Northern and Eastern Siberia. In 1648, Dezhnev was the first among the famous European navigators (80 years earlier than Vitus Bering) who managed to pass the Bering Strait, which separates Alaska from Chukotka. A Cossack ataman and fur trader, Dezhnev actively participated in the development of Siberia (Dezhnev himself married a Yakut Abakayada Syuchyu).

Grigory Shelikhov (1747 - 1795)

Russian industrialist who carried out geographical research of the northern islands of the Pacific Ocean and Alaska. He founded the first settlements in Russian America. The strait between about. Kodiak and the North American mainland, a bay in the Sea of Okhotsk, a city in the Irkutsk region and a volcano in the Kuriles. A remarkable Russian merchant, geographer and traveler, nicknamed “Russian Columbus” by G. R. Derzhavin, was born in 1747 in the city of Rylsk, Kursk province, into a bourgeois family. Overcoming the space from Irkutsk to the Lama (Okhotsk) Sea was his first journey. In 1781, Shelikhov created the Northeast Company, which in 1799 was transformed into the Russian-American Trading Company.

Dmitry Ovtsyn (1704 - 1757)

Russian hydrographer and traveler, led the second of the detachments of the Great Northern Expedition. Produced the first hydrographic inventory of the coast of Siberia between the mouths of the Ob and Yenisei. He discovered the Gydan Bay and the Gydan Peninsula. Participated in the last voyage of Vitus Bering to the shores of North America. A cape and an island in the Yenisei Bay bear his name. Dmitry Leontyevich Ovtsyn was in the Russian fleet from 1726, took part in the first voyage of Vitus Bering to the shores of Kamchatka, and by the time the expedition was organized, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant. The significance of Ovtsyn's expedition, like that of the rest of the detachments of the Great Northern Expedition, is extremely great. Based on the inventories compiled by Ovtsyn, maps of the places he explored were prepared until the beginning of the 20th century.

Ivan Kruzenshtern (1770 - 1846)

Russian navigator, admiral, led the first Russian round-the-world expedition. For the first time mapped most of the coast of about. Sakhalin. One of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society. His name is the strait in the northern part of the Kuril Islands, the passage between about. Tsushima and the islands of Iki and Okinoshima in the Korea Strait, islands in the Bering Strait and the Tuamotu Archipelago, a mountain on Novaya Zemlya. On June 26, 1803, the ships "Neva" and "Nadezhda" left Kronstadt and headed for the coast of Brazil. This was the first passage of Russian ships to the southern hemisphere. On August 19, 1806, during a stay in Copenhagen, a Danish prince visited a Russian ship, who wished to meet Russian sailors and listen to their stories. The first Russian circumnavigation was of great scientific and practical importance and attracted the attention of the whole world. Russian navigators corrected in many points the English charts, which were then considered the most accurate.

Thaddeus Bellingshausen (1778 - 1852)

Thaddeus Bellingshausen - Russian navigator, participant in the first Russian circumnavigation of the world by I.F. Kruzenshtern. Leader of the first Russian Antarctic expedition that discovered Antarctica. Admiral. The sea off the coast of Antarctica, the underwater basin between the continental slopes of Antarctica and South America, the islands in the Pacific, Atlantic Oceans and the Aral Sea, the first Soviet polar station on the island bear his name. King George in the South Shetland Islands. The future discoverer of the southern polar continent was born on September 20, 1778 on the island of Ezel near Arensburg in Livonia (Estonia).

Fyodor Litke (1797-1882)

Fyodor Litke - Russian navigator and geographer, count and admiral. Head of the round-the-world expedition and research on Novaya Zemlya and the Barents Sea. Discovered two groups of islands in the Caroline chain. One of the founders and leaders of the Russian Geographical Society. The name of Litke is 15 points on the map. Litke led the nineteenth Russian round-the-world expedition for hydrographic studies of little-known areas of the Pacific Ocean. Litke's voyage was one of the most successful Russian circumnavigations in history and was of great scientific importance. The exact coordinates of the main points of Kamchatka were determined, the islands were described - Karolinsky, Karaginsky, etc., the Chukchi coast from Cape Dezhnev to the mouth of the river. Anadyr. The discoveries were so important that Germany and France, arguing over the Caroline Islands, turned to Litka for advice on their location.

Travel has always attracted people, but before they were not only interesting, but also extremely difficult. The territories were not explored, and, setting off on a journey, everyone became an explorer. Which travelers are the most famous and what exactly did each of them discover?

James Cook

The famous Englishman was one of the best cartographers of the eighteenth century. He was born in the north of England and by the age of thirteen he began to work with his father. But the boy was unable to trade, so he decided to take up navigation. In those days, all the famous travelers of the world went to distant countries on ships. James became interested in maritime affairs and moved up the career ladder so quickly that he was offered to become a captain. He refused and went to the Royal Navy. Already in 1757, the talented Cook began to manage the ship himself. His first achievement was the drawing up of the fairway of the St. Lawrence River. He discovered in himself the talent of a navigator and cartographer. In the 1760s he explored Newfoundland, which attracted the attention of the Royal Society and the Admiralty. He was assigned to travel across the Pacific Ocean, where he reached the shores of New Zealand. In 1770, he did something that other famous travelers had not achieved before - he discovered a new continent. In 1771, Cook returned to England as the famous pioneer of Australia. His last journey was an expedition in search of a passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Today, even schoolchildren know the sad fate of Cook, who was killed by cannibal natives.

Christopher Columbus

Famous travelers and their discoveries have always had a significant impact on the course of history, but few have been as famous as this man. Columbus became a national hero of Spain, decisively expanding the map of the country. Christopher was born in 1451. The boy quickly achieved success because he was diligent and studied well. Already at the age of 14 he went to sea. In 1479, he met his love and began life in Portugal, but after the tragic death of his wife, he went with his son to Spain. Having received the support of the Spanish king, he went on an expedition, the purpose of which was to find a way to Asia. Three ships sailed from the coast of Spain to the west. In October 1492 they reached the Bahamas. This is how America was discovered. Christopher mistakenly decided to call the locals Indians, believing that he had reached India. His report changed history: two new continents and many islands, discovered by Columbus, became the main travel destination of the colonialists in the next few centuries.

Vasco da Gama

Portugal's most famous traveler was born in Sines on September 29, 1460. From a young age, he worked in the Navy and became famous as a confident and fearless captain. In 1495, King Manuel came to power in Portugal, who dreamed of developing trade with India. For this, a sea route was needed, in search of which Vasco da Gama had to go. There were also more famous sailors and travelers in the country, but for some reason the king chose him. In 1497, four ships sailed south, rounded and sailed to Mozambique. I had to stay there for a month - half of the team had scurvy by that time. After a break, Vasco da Gama reached Calcutta. In India, he established trade relations for three months, and a year later he returned to Portugal, where he became a national hero. The opening of the sea route, which made it possible to get to Calcutta past the east coast of Africa, was his main achievement.

Nikolay Miklukho-Maclay

Famous Russian travelers also made many important discoveries. For example, the same Nikolai Mikhlukho-Maclay, who was born in 1864 in the Novgorod province. He could not graduate from St. Petersburg University, as he was expelled for participating in student demonstrations. To continue his education, Nikolai went to Germany, where he met Haeckel, a naturalist who invited Miklouho-Maclay to his scientific expedition. So the world of wanderings opened up for him. His whole life was devoted to travel and scientific work. Nikolai lived in Sicily, in Australia, studied New Guinea, implementing the project of the Russian Geographical Society, visited Indonesia, the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula and Oceania. In 1886, the naturalist returned to Russia and proposed to the emperor to establish a Russian colony across the ocean. But the project with New Guinea did not receive royal support, and Miklouho-Maclay fell seriously ill and soon died, without completing his work on a travel book.

Ferdinand Magellan

Many famous navigators and travelers lived in the era of the Great Magellan is no exception. In 1480 he was born in Portugal, in the city of Sabrosa. Having gone to serve at court (at that time he was only 12 years old), he learned about the confrontation between his native country and Spain, about traveling to the East Indies and trade routes. So he first became interested in the sea. In 1505, Fernand got on a ship. Seven years after that, he plied the sea, participated in expeditions to India and Africa. In 1513, Magellan went to Morocco, where he was wounded in battle. But this did not curb the craving for travel - he planned an expedition for spices. The king rejected his request, and Magellan went to Spain, where he received all the necessary support. Thus began his world tour. Fernand thought that from the west the route to India might be shorter. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean, reached South America and discovered the strait, which would later be named after him. became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. On it, he reached the Philippines and almost reached the goal - the Moluccas, but died in battle with local tribes, wounded by a poisonous arrow. However, his journey opened up a new ocean for Europe and the realization that the planet is much larger than scientists had previously thought.

Roald Amundsen

The Norwegian was born at the very end of an era in which many famous travelers became famous. Amundsen was the last of the navigators who tried to find undiscovered lands. From childhood, he was distinguished by perseverance and self-confidence, which allowed him to conquer the South Geographic Pole. The beginning of the journey is connected with 1893, when the boy left the university and got a job as a sailor. In 1896 he became a navigator, and the following year he went on his first expedition to Antarctica. The ship was lost in the ice, the crew suffered from scurvy, but Amundsen did not give up. He took command, cured the people, remembering his medical background, and brought the ship back to Europe. After becoming a captain, in 1903 he went in search of the Northwest Passage off Canada. Famous travelers before him had never done anything like this - in two years the team covered the path from the east of the American mainland to its west. Amundsen became known to the whole world. The next expedition was a two-month trip to the South Plus, and the last venture was the search for Nobile, during which he went missing.

David Livingston

Many famous travelers are connected with seafaring. he became a land explorer, namely the African continent. The famous Scot was born in March 1813. At the age of 20, he decided to become a missionary, met Robert Moffett and wished to go to African villages. In 1841, he came to Kuruman, where he taught local people how to farm, served as a doctor, and taught literacy. There he learned the Bechuan language, which helped him in his travels in Africa. Livingston studied in detail the life and customs of the locals, wrote several books about them and went on an expedition in search of the sources of the Nile, in which he fell ill and died of a fever.

Amerigo Vespucci

The most famous travelers in the world were most often from Spain or Portugal. Amerigo Vespucci was born in Italy and became one of the famous Florentines. He received a good education and trained as a financier. From 1490 he worked in Seville, in the Medici trade mission. His life was connected with sea travel, for example, he sponsored the second expedition of Columbus. Christopher inspired him with the idea of trying himself as a traveler, and already in 1499 Vespucci went to Suriname. The purpose of the voyage was to study the coastline. There he opened a settlement called Venezuela - little Venice. In 1500 he returned home with 200 slaves. In 1501 and 1503 Amerigo repeated his travels, acting not only as a navigator, but also as a cartographer. He discovered the bay of Rio de Janeiro, the name of which he gave himself. Since 1505, he served the king of Castile and did not participate in campaigns, only equipped other people's expeditions.

Francis Drake

Many famous travelers and their discoveries have benefited humanity. But among them there are those who left behind a bad memory, since their names were associated with rather cruel events. An English Protestant, who had sailed on a ship from the age of twelve, was no exception. He captured local residents in the Caribbean, selling them into slavery to the Spaniards, attacked ships and fought with Catholics. Perhaps no one could equal Drake in terms of the number of captured foreign ships. His campaigns were sponsored by the Queen of England. In 1577 he went to South America to defeat the Spanish settlements. During the journey, he found Tierra del Fuego and the strait, which was later named after him. Rounding Argentina, Drake plundered the port of Valparaiso and two Spanish ships. When he reached California, he met the natives, who presented the British with gifts of tobacco and bird feathers. Drake crossed the Indian Ocean and returned to Plymouth, becoming the first British citizen to circumnavigate the world. He was admitted to the House of Commons and awarded the title of Sir. In 1595 he died in the last campaign in the Caribbean.

Afanasy Nikitin

Few famous travelers in Russia have achieved the same heights as this native of Tver. Afanasy Nikitin became the first European to visit India. He made a trip to the Portuguese colonizers and wrote "Journey Beyond the Three Seas" - the most valuable literary and historical monument. The success of the expedition was ensured by the merchant's career: Athanasius knew several languages and knew how to negotiate with people. On his journey, he visited Baku, lived in Persia for about two years and reached India by ship. After visiting several cities in an exotic country, he went to Parvat, where he stayed for a year and a half. After the province of Raichur, he headed to Russia, paving the route through the Arabian and Somali Peninsulas. However, Afanasy Nikitin never made it home, because he fell ill and died near Smolensk, but his notes survived and provided the merchant with world fame.

9 chose

If you think that with the departure of the Age of Discovery, outstanding travelers have sunk into oblivion, then you are mistaken! Our contemporaries also made the most amazing journeys. Among them are scientists who went in search of confirmation of their theories, explorers of the deep sea, and just adventurers who ventured to travel around the world alone or with like-minded people. Many documentaries have been created about their travels, and thanks to them, we can see the whole world through their eyes, real, alive, full of dangers and adventures.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Captain Cousteau is a famous French explorer of the World Ocean, author of books and films, inventor. The oceans revealed many of its secrets, showed the beauty of its depths still inaccessible to people for a huge number of diving enthusiasts. We can say that Captain Cousteau is the father of modern diving, because it was he who created the main apparatus for diving. Being engaged in research of the underwater world of our planet, Cousteau created the famous floating laboratory "Callisto" and the first apparatus for diving "Denise". Jacques-Yves Cousteau captivated millions of people, showing them on movie screens how beautiful the underwater world is, giving them the opportunity to see what was still inaccessible to man.

Thor Heyerdahl

The name of the most famous Norwegian of the 20th century is spelled "Thor" in his native language, just like the name of one of the main gods of Norse mythology, Thor. He made many trips on makeshift watercrafts of contacts between ancient civilizations. Heyerdahl proved in practice his theory that the inhabitants of South America visited the islands of Polynesia, since the scientific world did not perceive his ideas. Together with his team, in 101 days, having sailed 4300 miles, he reached the atoll of Raroia. It was one of his most famous voyages, the Kon-Tiki Expedition, on a makeshift raft. The film he shot during his trip won an Oscar in 1951. And in 1969, he went on a new dangerous expedition on a papyrus boat to prove, to prove the possibility of crossing the Atlantic Ocean by African peoples. However, the first journey of Thor Heyerdahl on the boat "Ra" ended in failure, the boat sank, not reaching just 600 miles from the island of Barbados. A year later, the stubborn Norwegian repeated his journey and sailed from Morocco to Barbados in 57 days. By the way, our compatriot Yuri Senkevich was the doctor on this expedition. Heyerdahl later traveled to the Maldives, Peru and Tenerife.

Yuri Senkevich

The popular TV presenter of the "Club of Travelers" program Yuri Senkevich was included in the list of the most famous travelers not only as the doctor of the Thor Heyerdahl expedition. His "track record" of the traveler is respected:

as a medical researcher, Senkevich was trained to participate in a space flight, participated in the 12th Antarctic expedition to the Vostok station in order to study human behavior in extreme conditions, traveled on the papyrus boat "Ra", then on the "Ra-2" and in the Indian Ocean on the Tigris. Millions of Soviet TV viewers were able to see the world, as they joked then "through the eyes of Senkevich." By the way, the program "Cinema Travel Club", the program was listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

Nikolay Drozdov

More than 40 years ago, Nikolai Nikolaevich Drozdov became the host of the popular TV show "In the Animal World". An avid traveler, a "gallant know-it-all", who spends hours talking about animals as the most wonderful and beautiful creatures in the world - be it an elephant, a bug, or even a poisonous snake. An amazing and wonderful person, the idol of millions of viewers of our country, listening to stories about interesting facts from the life of birds, reptiles, domestic and wild animals, about the beauty of our nature - and incomparable pleasure, because only a person in love with life can tell like that. An interesting fact about Nikolai Nikolayevich himself is that his great-great-great-grandfather was Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow, and his maternal great-great-grandfather Ivan Romanovich von Dreiling was an orderly of Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov.

Nikolai Drozdov traveled the whole world, all zoological and national parks, studying the habitats and habits of animals in natural conditions, climbed Elbrus, participated from a long expedition on the Callisto research vessel and in the first Soviet expedition to Everest, twice went to the North Pole, passed along the Northern Sea Route on the icebreaker "Yamal", sailed along the coasts of Alaska and Canada on the "Discoverer".

Fedor Konyukhov

A lone traveler who cut what seemed impossible to conquer, more than once overcame a path that could not be walked alone - the great contemporary Fyodor Konyukhov. The first among travelers who conquered the North and South Poles, seas, oceans and the highest peaks of the world, which is proved by more than 40 expeditions made by him to the most inaccessible places on our planet. Among them are five round-the-world trips, a solo voyage across the Atlantic (which, by the way, he crossed more than once) on a rowboat. Konyukhov was the first to cross the Pacific Ocean from continent to continent. But the life of our distinguished compatriot is not filled with travel alone - Fedor Konyukhov became the youngest member of the Union of Artists of the USSR and the author of twelve travel books. There were also new plans ahead: flying around the world in a balloon and circumnavigating the world in 80 days for the Jules Verne Cup, as well as diving into the Mariana Trench. However, having received the priesthood in 2010, Fedor Konyukhov decided not to travel anymore, but ... the ways of the Lord are inscrutable and the famous traveler is again at the helm. In the spring of this year, he "beat" the Russian record and stayed in the air on a balloon for 19 hours and 10 minutes.

Bear Grylls

Fame came to the young English traveler thanks to the highest-rated TV show on the Discovery channel, Survive at Any Cost, which first aired in October 2006. The TV presenter and traveler does not just "entertain" the audience with beautiful views of the most amazing places on the planet, his goal is to bring to the audience life recommendations that can come in handy in unforeseen situations.

His list of travels is respected: he sailed around the British Isles in thirty days, crossed the North Atlantic in an inflatable boat, flew a steam-powered plane over Angel Falls, paraglided over the Himalayas, led an expedition to one of the furthest unclimbed peaks in Antarctica and arranged ... a gala dinner in a balloon at an altitude of more than seven thousand meters! Most of Grylls' expeditions are for charitable purposes.

Abby Sunderland

Not only men can boast of friendship with the wind of wandering - Abby Sunderland, a young traveler who at the age of 16 alone made a trip around the world on a yacht, will give odds to many men. The determination of Abby's parents is surprising, because they not only allowed her to participate in such a dangerous enterprise, but also helped to prepare for it. Alas, the first start on January 23, 2010 was unsuccessful and Abby made a second attempt on February 6. The journey turned out to be more dangerous than expected: between Australia and Africa, 2 thousand miles from the coast, the yacht's hull was damaged and the engine failed. After this message, communication was interrupted, the search for Abby's yacht was unsuccessful, and she was declared missing. A whole month later, Australian rescuers in the zone of the most severe storm found the lost yacht and Abby alive and unharmed. Who then will say that a woman has no place on a ship?

Jason Lewis

And, finally, the most original of modern travelers, who spent 13 years on a round-the-world trip! Why so long? The simple fact is that Jason refused any kind of technology and all sorts of achievements of civilization. The former janitor, along with his friend Steve Smith, went around the world on a bicycle, boat and rollerblades! The expedition started from Greenwich in 1994, in February 1995 the travelers reached the shores of the United States and after 111 days of sailing decided to cross America separately on roller skates. Lewis had to interrupt the journey for 9 months after an accident. After recovering, Lewis goes to Hawaii, from where he sails on a pedal boat to Australia, where he had to spend some time earning money for his further trip ... selling T-shirts. In 2005, he reaches Singapore, then crosses China and India on a bicycle. By March 2007, he reached Africa and also crossed all of Europe on a bicycle: Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Germany and Belgium. Having crossed the English Channel, in October 2007, Jason Lewis returned to London.

Everything that we now know was once discovered by people - pioneers. Some crossed the ocean for the first time and found a new land, someone became the discoverer of space, someone was the first to dive in a bathyscaphe into the world's deepest cavity. Thanks to the ten pioneers below, today we know the world for what it really is.

Leif Eriksson/Leifur Eiriksson is the first European of Icelandic origin who, according to some scholars, was the first to visit the continent of North America. Around the 11th century, this Scandinavian sailor lost his course and landed on some coast, which he later called "Vinland". Documentary, of course, there is no evidence of exactly in which part of North America he moored. Some archaeologists claim that they managed to discover Viking settlements in Newfoundland, Canada.

Sacajawea, or Sacagawea / Sakakawea, Sacajawea is a girl of Indian origin, on whom Maryweather Lewis and his partner William Clark completely relied on during their expedition, the path of which ran through the entire American continent. The girl walked with these researchers more than 6473 kilometers. On top of that, the girl had a newborn baby in her arms. During this journey in 1805, Sacagawea found her lost brother. The girl is mentioned in the movie "Night at the Museum" and "Night at the Museum 2".

Christopher Columbus / Christopher Columbus - a navigator of Spanish origin who discovered America, but due to the fact that he and his expedition were looking for a sea route to India, Christopher believed that the lands he had discovered were Indian. In 1492, his expedition discovered the Bahamas, Cuba and a number of other islands in the Caribbean. Christopher set sail for the first time at the age of 13.

Amerigo Vespucci is the man after whom the continent America was named. Although, in fact, Columbus made this discovery, it was American Vespucci who documented the “find”. In 1502, he explored the shores of South America, and it was then that the well-deserved fame and honor came to him.

James Cook / James Cook - a captain who managed to sail much further into southern waters than any of his contemporaries. Cook owns a proven fact about the falsity of the northern route through the Arctic from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is known that Captain James Cook made 2 round-the-world expeditions, mapped the islands in the Pacific Ocean, as well as Australia, for which he was later eaten by the natives. That's how gratitude is.

William Beebe is a 20th century naturalist explorer. In 1934, he descended 922 meters on a bathysphere and told people that "the world under water is no less strange than on another planet." Although how does he know how to live on other planets?

Chuck Yeager is a general in the US Air Force. In 1947, the first one broke the sound barrier. In 1952, Chuck flew at twice the speed of sound. Chuck Yeager, in addition to setting speed records, was a trainer for pilots of such space programs as Apollo, Gemini and Mercury.

Louise Arne Boyd / Louise Boyd is also known to the world under the nickname "Ice Woman". She got this nickname thanks to her explorations of Greenland. In 1955, she flew over the North Pole and was the first woman to do so in an airplane. She also has the discovery of an underwater mountain range in the Arctic Ocean.

Yuri Gagarin / Yuri Gagarin - April 12, 1961, the first of all people living on our planet, was in space. His first flight lasted as much as 108 minutes. It was a real achievement in astronautics.

Anousheh Ansari is the first female space tourist. She made her flight in September 2006. To her achievements, one can add the fact that she was the first of all those who have been in orbit to blog on the Internet from space.