Notable Explorer Rankings
Ranking of the most influential explorers, navigators, and discoverers. Dates are formatted as Birth–Death. Nationalities use English three-letter abbreviations.
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All Items (50)
Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) (ITA)—
Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521) (POR)—
Vasco da Gama (1460–1524) (POR)—
Marco Polo (1254–1324) (ITA)—
Zheng He (1371–1433) (CHN)—
James Cook (1728–1779) (GBR)—
Roald Amundsen (1872–1928) (NOR)—
Leif Erikson (c.970–c.1020) (ICE)—
Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512) (ITA)—
Hernán Cortés (1485–1547) (ESP)—
Francisco Pizarro (c.1478–1541) (ESP)—
David Livingstone (1813–1873) (GBR)—
Henry Hudson (c.1565–1611) (ENG)—
John Cabot (c.1450–c.1500) (ITA)—
Bartolomeu Dias (c.1450–1500) (POR)—
Abel Tasman (1603–1659) (NED)—
Vitus Bering (1681–1741) (DEN)—
Samuel de Champlain (c.1574–1635) (FRA)—
Jacques Cartier (1491–1557) (FRA)—
Francis Drake (c.1540–1596) (ENG)—
Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) (USA)—
William Clark (1770–1838) (USA)—
Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) (GER)—
Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) (GBR)—
John Hanning Speke (1827–1864) (GBR)—
Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904) (GBR)—
Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912) (GBR)—
Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922) (IRL)—
Matthew Henson (1866–1955) (USA)—
Robert Peary (1856–1920) (USA)—
Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002) (NOR)—
Pytheas of Massalia (c.380–c.310 BC) (GRE)—
Xu Xiake (1587–1641) (CHN)—
Ibn Battuta (1304–1368/69) (MOR)—
Nikolai Przhevalsky (1839–1888) (RUS)—
Mungo Park (1771–1806) (SCO)—
George Vancouver (1757–1798) (GBR)—
Jean-François de Galaup de Lapérouse (1741–1788?) (FRA)—
Pedro Álvares Cabral (c.1467–c.1520) (POR)—
Juan Sebastián Elcano (1476–1526) (ESP)—
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (c.1490–c.1559) (ESP)—
Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930) (NOR)—
William Dampier (1651–1715) (ENG)—
Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811) (FRA)—
Pedro de Alvarado (1485–1541) (ESP)—
Álvaro de Mendaña (1542–1595) (ESP)—
Willem Barentsz (c.1550–1597) (NED)—
Carsten Niebuhr (1733–1815) (GER)—
John Wesley Powell (1834–1902) (USA)—
Ranulph Fiennes (1944–Present) (GBR)—