Every expedition in the atlas

Terra Incognita charts what people had actually seen, century by century. Each expedition below has its own page, with its route, its steps and its sources, and opens in the atlas where the fog lifts as it advances.

Land

• Han mission to the West — Zhang Qian · 138 BCE – 126 BCE
  Seek an alliance against the Xiongnu and report on the western kingdoms.
• Pilgrimage to India — Faxian · 399 CE – 412 CE
  Seek Buddhist scriptures in India.
• Journey to the West — Xuanzang · 629 CE – 645 CE
  Study Buddhism at the source in India.
• Mission to the Volga — Ahmad ibn Fadlan · 921 CE – 922 CE
  Carry an Abbasid embassy to the Volga Bulgars.
• Pilgrimage from Granada to Mecca — Ibn Jubayr · 1183 CE – 1185 CE
  Perform the hajj and record every stage of the road from al-Andalus to the Hejaz and back.
• Journey to Cathay — Marco Polo · 1271 CE – 1295 CE
  Travel to the court of Kublai Khan.
• The Rihla — Ibn Battuta · 1325 CE – 1354 CE
  Complete the pilgrimage to Mecca and travel as far as the known world allows.
• The long walk from Malhado — Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca · 1528 CE – 1536 CE
  Reach a Spanish settlement alive, from a beach on the Gulf coast with no ships, no horses and no idea of the distance.
• Ahead of Fray Marcos, to Cíbola — Estevanico · 1539 CE
  Scout the road north from Culiacán to the populous towns Cabeza de Vaca had heard of, and report back by messenger.
• The entrada to Cíbola and Quivira — Francisco Vázquez de Coronado · 1540 CE – 1542 CE
  Take possession of the Seven Cities of Cíbola reported by Fray Marcos de Niza and find the wealth that was assumed to lie beyond them.
• Over the Urals into Sibir — Yermak Timofeyevich · 1582 CE – 1585 CE
  Carry the war beyond the Urals against Khan Kuchum and open the fur country of the Irtysh.
• Up the Amazon to Quito and back — Pedro Teixeira · 1637 CE – 1639 CE
  Establish whether the Amazon could carry a force from the Atlantic to the Andes, and fix a Portuguese claim as far upstream as possible.
• From Istanbul to Mecca — Evliya Çelebi · 1671 CE – 1672 CE
  Perform the hajj at last, and describe every town, shrine and stage of the road on the way.
• Down the Mississippi to the Gulf — René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle · 1682 CE
  Follow the great river from the Illinois country to its mouth and determine whether it opened on the Gulf of Mexico or on the Pacific.
• Crossing the continent — Alexander Mackenzie · 1789 CE – 1793 CE
  Reach the western ocean across North America.
• Search for the Niger — Mungo Park · 1795 CE – 1797 CE
  Find the course of the Niger River.
• Expedition to the Americas — Alexander von Humboldt · 1799 CE – 1804 CE
  Study the natural world of the Americas.
• Corps of Discovery — Meriwether Lewis · 1804 CE – 1806 CE
  Explore the Missouri and reach the Pacific.
• Fort Mandan to the Pacific — Sacagawea · 1804 CE – 1806 CE
  Carry the expedition west as interpreter to the Shoshone, so that horses could be bought for the crossing of the Rocky Mountains.
• To Timbuktu and across the Sahara — René Caillié · 1827 CE – 1828 CE
  Reach Timbuktu in disguise and bring back a first-hand description of the city and the Niger.
• Overland from Adelaide to King George’s Sound — Edward John Eyre · 1840 CE – 1841 CE
  Force a way into the interior north of Adelaide and, failing that, open an overland stock route to Western Australia.
• Moreton Bay to Port Essington — Ludwig Leichhardt · 1844 CE – 1845 CE
  Find an overland stock route from the Darling Downs to the garrison at Port Essington and describe the country on the way.
• Six years in the Sahara and the Sudan — Heinrich Barth · 1849 CE – 1855 CE
  Open a route from Tripoli to Lake Chad, survey the central Sudan and report on its trade.
• Crossing Africa — David Livingstone · 1853 CE – 1856 CE
  Cross Africa from coast to coast.
• Search for the Nile source — Richard Francis Burton · 1857 CE – 1859 CE
  Find the source of the Nile.
• Victorian Exploring Expedition — Burke and Wills · 1860 CE – 1861 CE
  Cross the continent from Melbourne to the northern coast before South Australia could, and report on the country and a telegraph route.
• The source of the Nile with Grant — John Hanning Speke · 1860 CE – 1863 CE
  Return to the lake sighted in 1858, find its northern outlet and follow the Nile down to Egypt.
• Sixth expedition: Adelaide to the northern sea — John McDouall Stuart · 1861 CE – 1862 CE
  Cross the continent through its centre and find a practicable line for an overland telegraph to the north coast.
• Up the White Nile to Lake Albert — Samuel and Florence Baker · 1861 CE – 1865 CE
  Meet the expedition coming down from the interior and close the last unknown stretch of the White Nile.
• The pundit’s route survey to Lhasa — Nain Singh · 1865 CE – 1866 CE
  Reach Lhasa disguised as a trader, fix its position and pace the whole valley of the Tsangpo.
• Tibesti, Borku, Wadai and Darfur — Gustav Nachtigal · 1869 CE – 1874 CE
  Deliver the Prussian presents at Kukawa and explore the unknown country between Fezzan and the Nile.
• The Green and the Colorado, 1869 — John Wesley Powell · 1869 CE
  Run the unmapped canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers from Wyoming to the Virgin River and measure what they cut through.
• First Central Asian expedition — Nikolai Przhevalsky · 1870 CE – 1873 CE
  Survey a route from Kyakhta to Peking and southward to the Tibetan plateau, collecting plants and animals throughout.
• Across Africa by the Congo — Henry Morton Stanley · 1874 CE – 1877 CE
  Settle the shape of the great lakes and follow the Lualaba wherever it led.
• Two years in Arabia Deserta — Charles Doughty · 1876 CE – 1878 CE
  Copy the inscribed Nabataean tombs of Mada’in Salih and see the interior of Arabia as an open Christian traveller.
• Peking to Kashmir by the Mustagh Pass — Francis Younghusband · 1887 CE
  Return overland from China to India, crossing the Gobi and the Karakoram and reporting on the passes.
• Travels in West Africa — Mary Kingsley · 1893 CE – 1895 CE
  Study the peoples and nature of West Africa.
• Fram drift — Fridtjof Nansen · 1893 CE – 1896 CE
  Reach the North Pole by drifting with the ice.
• The Tarim, Lop Nur and northern Tibet — Sven Hedin · 1899 CE – 1902 CE
  Survey the rivers and lakes of the Tarim basin, settle the position of Lop Nur and cross Tibet to Lhasa.
• Northwest Passage — Roald Amundsen · 1903 CE – 1906 CE
  Navigate the Northwest Passage by ship.
• North Pole expedition — Matthew Henson · 1908 CE – 1909 CE
  Reach the North Pole.
• North Pole attempt — Robert Peary · 1908 CE – 1909 CE
  Be first to the North Pole.
• South Pole expedition — Roald Amundsen · 1910 CE – 1911 CE
  Be first to reach the South Pole.
• Terra Nova expedition — Robert Falcon Scott · 1910 CE – 1912 CE
  Reach the South Pole for Britain.
• Damascus to Ha’il and Baghdad — Gertrude Bell · 1913 CE – 1914 CE
  Reach Ha’il across the Nafud, map the wells of the road and judge the strength of the Rashid emirate.
• Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition — Ernest Shackleton · 1914 CE – 1916 CE
  Cross Antarctica via the South Pole.
• On foot to Lhasa — Alexandra David-Néel · 1923 CE – 1924 CE
  Cross eastern Tibet disguised as pilgrims and enter Lhasa, closed to foreigners by both Lhasa and the British.
• The last march towards Z — Percy Fawcett · 1925 CE
  Cross the Mato Grosso from Cuiabá to the headwaters of the Xingu and find the ruined city Fawcett called Z.
• First crossing of the Empty Quarter — Wilfred Thesiger · 1946 CE – 1947 CE
  Cross the western sands of the Rub‘ al Khali from Dhofar to the Trucial Coast with Bedouin companions and on their terms.

Summits

• The first ascent of Mont Blanc — Michel-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat · 1786 CE
  Reach the summit of the highest mountain in the Alps, carry a barometer to the top and take a reading there.
• The first ascent of the Matterhorn — Edward Whymper · 1865 CE
  Climb the Matterhorn from Zermatt by the Hörnli ridge before Carrel's Italian party reached the top from Breuil.
• Lucy Walker on the Matterhorn — Lucy Walker · 1871 CE
  Be the first woman on the summit of the Matterhorn, ahead of Meta Brevoort.
• The first ascent of Kilimanjaro — Hans Meyer · 1889 CE
  Reach the highest point of Kibo across the ice cap that had stopped every earlier attempt, and map the summit.
• The FitzGerald expedition to Aconcagua — Matthias Zurbriggen · 1896 CE – 1897 CE
  Make the first ascent of Aconcagua and survey the high Andes around it before a rival German party arrived.
• The Mackinder expedition to Mount Kenya — Halford Mackinder · 1899 CE
  Make the first ascent of Mount Kenya and survey its glaciers, peaks, plants and animals.
• Nun Kun and Pinnacle Peak — Fanny Bullock Workman · 1906 CE
  Explore the Nun Kun massif from the Suru valley, map its glaciers and climb as high as its snow plateau allowed.
• Annie Peck's conquest of Huascarán — Annie Smith Peck · 1908 CE
  Reach the summit of Huascarán, which she believed higher than Aconcagua, and measure its altitude with a hypsometer.
• The first ascent of Denali — Hudson Stuck · 1913 CE
  Reach the true summit of Denali by the Muldrow glacier and the north-east ridge, and settle the claims of Cook and the Sourdoughs.
• The third Everest expedition — George Mallory · 1924 CE
  Climb Everest from Tibet by the North Col and the north-east ridge, with or without the new oxygen apparatus.
• The French Annapurna expedition — Maurice Herzog · 1950 CE
  Climb Dhaulagiri or Annapurna, the first 8,000-metre summit, in the first season Nepal had ever opened to a climbing expedition.
• The first ascent of Everest — Tenzing Norgay · 1953 CE
  Climb Everest by the South Col and the south-east ridge with oxygen, on Britain's only permit before the French took their turn in 1954.
• The Willy Merkl memorial expedition to Nanga Parbat — Hermann Buhl · 1953 CE
  Climb Nanga Parbat by the Rakhiot face, the route on which the German expeditions of 1934 and 1937 had lost twenty-six men.
• The Italian K2 expedition — Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli · 1954 CE
  Make the first ascent of K2 by the Abruzzi Spur, with a scientific programme in the Baltoro under the geologist Ardito Desio.
• The Japanese Women's Everest Expedition — Junko Tabei · 1975 CE
  Put a woman on the summit of Everest by the South Col, with a team of fifteen Japanese women and six Sherpas.
• Everest without oxygen — Reinhold Messner · 1978 CE
  Reach the summit of Everest by the South Col breathing nothing but the air at 8,849 metres, which physiologists held to be impossible.
• Everest solo in the monsoon — Reinhold Messner · 1980 CE
  Climb Everest alone from Tibet, without oxygen, fixed ropes or companions above advanced base, in the monsoon season nobody else wanted.
• K2 in the black summer — Wanda Rutkiewicz · 1986 CE
  Climb K2 by the Abruzzi Spur in lightweight style, without oxygen, with a party of four and no high-altitude porters.

Sea

• Expedition to Punt — Hannu · 2750 BCE – 2745 BCE
  Sail south for the incense and goods of Punt.
• Voyage of the Periplus — Hanno the Navigator · 500 BCE – 470 BCE
  Plant colonies and trading posts along the Atlantic coast of Africa.
• Voyage to the North — Pytheas of Massalia · 330 BCE – 300 BCE
  Investigate the tin trade and the seas beyond Iberia.
• Return from India — Nearchus · 325 BCE – 324 BCE
  Guide the fleet from the Indus back to Persia.
• Settlement of Greenland — Erik the Red · 985 CE – 986 CE
  Find and settle land west of Iceland.
• Voyage to Vinland — Leif Erikson · 1000 CE – 1001 CE
  Explore the lands reported west of Greenland.
• Treasure fleet voyages — Zheng He · 1405 CE – 1433 CE
  Display Ming power and extend the tribute trade across the Indian Ocean.
• Voyage to the Cape — Bartolomeu Dias · 1487 CE – 1488 CE
  Find the southern end of Africa.
• First Atlantic crossing — Christopher Columbus · 1492 CE – 1493 CE
  Reach Asia by sailing west.
• First voyage to India — Vasco da Gama · 1497 CE – 1499 CE
  Open the sea route to India around Africa.
• The voyage of the Matthew — John Cabot · 1497 CE
  Find a short western route to the spice lands of Asia for English merchants.
• Indian Ocean pilotage — Ahmad ibn Mājid · 1498 CE
  Pilot a fleet across the Arabian Sea to India.
• Voyage to Brazil and India — Pedro Álvares Cabral · 1500 CE – 1501 CE
  Follow da Gama’s route and secure the trade.
• Circumnavigation — Ferdinand Magellan · 1519 CE – 1522 CE
  Reach the Spice Islands by sailing west.
• Voyages to Canada — Jacques Cartier · 1534 CE – 1542 CE
  Find a western passage and claim new land for France.
• Descent of the Amazon — Francisco de Orellana · 1541 CE – 1542 CE
  Find food and a route down the great river.
• Circumnavigation — Francis Drake · 1577 CE – 1580 CE
  Raid Spanish possessions and find new routes.
• Northeast passage voyages — Willem Barentsz · 1594 CE – 1597 CE
  Find a northeast sea route to Asia.
• Exploration of New France — Samuel de Champlain · 1603 CE – 1615 CE
  Map and settle the St Lawrence region.
• North American voyages — Henry Hudson · 1609 CE – 1611 CE
  Find a passage to Asia through North America.
• Search for the southern continent — Abel Tasman · 1642 CE – 1643 CE
  Find the fabled Terra Australis.
• Great Northern Expedition — Vitus Bering · 1728 CE – 1741 CE
  Determine whether Asia and America are joined.
• The first French circumnavigation — Louis-Antoine de Bougainville · 1766 CE – 1769 CE
  Hand the Falklands back to Spain, then cross the Pacific and carry the French flag round the world.
• First Pacific voyage — James Cook · 1768 CE – 1771 CE
  Observe the transit of Venus and search for the southern continent.
• Second voyage — James Cook · 1772 CE – 1775 CE
  Settle whether a great southern continent exists in temperate latitudes.
• The voyage of the Boussole and the Astrolabe — Jean-François de La Pérouse · 1785 CE – 1788 CE
  Complete the Pacific chart left unfinished by Cook, and survey its coasts for trade and science.
• The open-boat voyage to Timor — William Bligh · 1789 CE
  Bring eighteen men, cast adrift in a 7-metre launch, to the nearest European settlement alive.
• Survey of the Pacific Northwest — George Vancouver · 1791 CE – 1795 CE
  Take back the Nootka territory from Spain and settle whether a Northwest Passage opens on the Pacific coast.
• The circumnavigation of Australia — Matthew Flinders · 1801 CE – 1803 CE
  Chart the whole coast of New Holland and determine whether a strait divides the continent.
• Voyage to the South Pole and Oceania — Jules Dumont d’Urville · 1837 CE – 1840 CE
  Push as far south as the ice allows, and survey the islands of Oceania on the way.
• The Erebus and Terror in the Antarctic — James Clark Ross · 1839 CE – 1843 CE
  Find the South Magnetic Pole and build a worldwide record of magnetic observations.
• Lost Arctic expedition — John Franklin · 1845 CE – 1848 CE
  Complete the Northwest Passage.

Deep sea

• The half-mile dives off Bermuda — William Beebe and Otis Barton · 1934 CE
  Lower a steel sphere half a mile into the open Atlantic and describe what lives there.
• Trieste's first deep dives — Auguste Piccard · 1953 CE
  Prove that a bathyscaphe of his own design could carry a crew to great depth and bring it back unaided.
• Calypso in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean — Jacques Cousteau · 1955 CE
  Film the underwater world in colour, at depth, along a route from Marseille to the Seychelles.
• Challenger Deep dive — Jacques Piccard · 1960 CE
  Reach the deepest point of the ocean.
• The search for USS Thresher — Trieste (the Thresher search) · 1963 CE
  Find, photograph and identify a nuclear submarine lost with all hands at 2,560 metres.
• The Galápagos Rift hydrothermal expedition — Jack Corliss and the Alvin team · 1977 CE
  Dive on the temperature anomalies found the year before and prove that hot water circulates through the ridge.
• The JIM walk off Oahu — Sylvia Earle · 1979 CE
  Carry a scientist to the sea floor in an atmospheric suit and release her to work untethered.
• Finding and diving the Titanic — Robert Ballard · 1985 CE – 1986 CE
  Search 150 square nautical miles of abyssal plain for a wreck that four expeditions had failed to find.
• The 1987 Titanic recovery dives — Nautile · 1987 CE
  Dive the wreck from the support ship Nadir and recover objects from the debris field.
• The search for the Bismarck — Argo and Jason (Ballard's Bismarck search) · 1989 CE
  Find a battleship sunk in 1941 on an abyssal plain west of Brest and settle how she went down.
• The Deepsea Challenger solo dive — James Cameron · 2012 CE
  Take a purpose-built vertical submersible to the bottom of the Challenger Deep and work there.
• The Five Deeps Expedition — Victor Vescovo · 2018 CE – 2019 CE
  Survey and then dive the deepest point of each of the five oceans within a single year.

Air

• The transpolar flight of the Norge — Umberto Nobile · 1926 CE
  Fly from Svalbard across the North Pole to Alaska and see whether any land lies in the unexplored polar basin.
• New York to Paris, alone — Charles Lindbergh · 1927 CE
  Fly non-stop from New York to Paris alone and win the Orteig Prize.
• Around-the-world flight — Amelia Earhart · 1937 CE
  Fly around the world near the equator.

Moon

• Luna 3 flyby — Luna 3 · 1959 CE
  Photograph the far side of the Moon.
• Luna 1 flyby — Luna 1 · 1959 CE
  Impact the Moon.
• Luna 2 impact — Luna 2 · 1959 CE
  Reach the Moon’s surface.
• Ranger 7 impact — Ranger 7 · 1964 CE
  Photograph the Moon at close range.
• Luna 9 landing — Luna 9 · 1966 CE
  Make the first soft landing on the Moon.
• Surveyor 3 landing — Surveyor 3 · 1967 CE – 1969 CE
  Land and study the lunar soil.
• Apollo 8 lunar orbit — Apollo 8 · 1968 CE
  Orbit the Moon with a crew.
• Apollo 11 — Neil Armstrong · 1969 CE
  Land humans on the Moon and return them safely.
• Lunokhod 1 traverse — Lunokhod 1 · 1970 CE – 1971 CE
  Drive a rover across the lunar surface.
• Luna 16 sample return — Luna 16 · 1970 CE
  Return a lunar sample automatically.
• Apollo 17 landing — Apollo 17 · 1972 CE
  Conduct the last crewed lunar landing.
• Chang'e 4 far-side landing — Chang'e 4 · 2019 CE
  Land on the far side of the Moon.
• Chandrayaan-3 landing — Chandrayaan-3 · 2023 CE
  Land near the lunar south pole.

Mars

• Mariner 4 flyby — Mariner 4 · 1965 CE
  Photograph Mars from close range and measure its atmosphere and magnetic field.
• Mariner 9 global survey — Mariner 9 · 1971 CE – 1972 CE
  Enter orbit and map the whole surface of Mars from pole to pole.
• Viking 1 landing in Chryse Planitia — Viking 1 · 1976 CE – 1982 CE
  Land safely on Mars, photograph the surface and test the soil for life.
• Viking 2 landing in Utopia Planitia — Viking 2 · 1976 CE – 1980 CE
  Repeat the Viking experiments at a second, higher-latitude site.
• Pathfinder and Sojourner at Ares Vallis — Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner · 1997 CE
  Prove a cheap airbag landing and drive a small rover between rocks.
• Spirit traverse in Gusev crater — Spirit · 2004 CE – 2010 CE
  Look for rocks shaped by water on the floor of a crater that may once have been a lake.
• Opportunity traverse on Meridiani Planum — Opportunity · 2004 CE – 2018 CE
  Read the layered rock of a plain where orbiters had detected haematite.
• Phoenix at the northern plains — Phoenix · 2008 CE
  Dig into the arctic ground of Mars and find out whether there is ice in it.
• Curiosity traverse in Gale crater — Curiosity · 2012 CE – 2026 CE
  Find out whether Gale crater was ever able to support life, and read its layered mountain.
• InSight station in Elysium Planitia — InSight · 2018 CE – 2022 CE
  Listen to marsquakes and measure the crust, mantle and core of the planet.
• Perseverance traverse in Jezero crater — Perseverance and Ingenuity · 2021 CE – 2026 CE
  Seek signs of ancient life in a river delta and set aside samples for a return to Earth.
• Zhurong traverse in Utopia Planitia — Zhurong · 2021 CE – 2022 CE
  Drive south across a young northern plain and sound what lies beneath it.