Apr 26th, 2013 at 2:00PM: Before there was the museum, there was the cabinet of curiosities. Starting in the 16th century as Europe expanded its horizons during the Age of Exploration, the rich and powerful began to collect curios and display them. Their collections were eclectic – everything from strange weapons from distant islands to beautiful coral formations.
The objects were all put together in no particular ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
exploration posts
The Cabinet Of Curiosities: Collecting The Wonders Of The World
Apr 26th, 2013 at 2:00PM: Before there was the museum, there was the cabinet of curiosities. Starting in the 16th century as Europe expanded its horizons during the Age of Exploration, the rich and powerful began to collect curios and display them. Their collections were eclectic – everything from strange weapons from distant islands to beautiful coral formations.
The objects were all put together in no particular ...The 'Christopher Columbus Of China' May Have Visited Kenya, A New Find Reveals
Mar 16th, 2013 at 10:00AM:
An explorer from medieval China may have visited an island off the coast of Kenya, archaeologists say.
A joint expedition by The Field Museum and the University of Illinois at Chicago unearthed a 15th-century Chinese coin on the Kenyan island of Manda, according to a Field Museum press release. Starting around 200 A.D., Manda was a trading hub and home to an advanced civilization.
The ...Inside The Urban Underground: Exploration Gets Personal
Aug 30th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
New Yorker Steve Duncan was so desperate to pass his college math class, he crawled through a tunnel to finish it. A computer assignment was due the next day and the software to finish was inside a building closed for the night. In a moment of desperation, Steve came up with a crazy plan: he could sneak inside. Having heard from a classmate about a collection of well-known tunnels ...Terra Nova Expedition Ship Discovered
Aug 19th, 2012 at 3:00PM:
The ship that gave the name to Captain Robert Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova expedition has been found in the waters off Greenland, the Schmidt Ocean Institute reports.
The SS Terra Nova took Scott's British team to Antarctica in 1910. They raced to be the first to the South Pole but were beaten by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian team by only a matter of days. On their way back, bad weather set in ...Admiring Greenland From The Air While Freaking Out An Air Marshal
Jul 8th, 2012 at 2:00PM:
Intercontinental flights are usually pretty dull. The route between London and Chicago, however, is one I always look forward to. That's because it flies over the southern tip of Greenland. The airplane heads northwest over Ireland, then arcs across the North Atlantic, barely missing Iceland before crossing Greenland.
I always seem to be lucky with the weather and get a clear view of the ...Earliest Map Naming America Discovered
Jul 4th, 2012 at 8:00AM: A copy of the earliest map that names America has been discovered.
The map was created by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507 based on explorers' accounts. Only four copies are known to exist, but a fifth has just been discovered inside a 19th century book at the Ludwig Maximilian University library in Munich.
This map is slightly different than the others and appears to ...National Geographic Television Casting New Adventure Series
Jun 6th, 2012 at 8:00AM: National Geographic Television has put out an intriguing casting call for a new adventure series that is set to go into production in the near future. The network is seeking an experienced adventurer to join its cast and the job description certainly isn't one that you'll find in the local classifieds. That description reads as follows:
National Geographic seeking to hire a ...St. Brendan: Did An Irish Monk Come To America Before Columbus?
May 16th, 2012 at 10:30AM: Today is St. Brendan's feast day. To the Irish, St. Brendan needs no introduction. For those less fortunate in their birth, let me tell you that he may have been Ireland's first adventure traveler.
Saint Brendan was an Irish holy man who lived from 484 to 577 AD. Little is known about his life, and even his entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia is rather short. What we do know about him mostly ...Explore The Unknown In Your Hometown On Obscura Day
Apr 16th, 2012 at 2:00PM: "Travel" is an activity many of us associate with leaving home in search of the new and unfamiliar. But the truth is, there are some strange and wonderful sites in the places we live, often right under our nose. It's the idea behind a great event called Obscura Day, kicking off its third year this April 28 in cities across the US and the world.
Sponsored by Atlas Obscura, a website devoted to ...Visiting The Royal Geographical Society, London
Apr 8th, 2012 at 10:00AM: While London isn't exactly known as an adventure travel destination, unless you're crossing Elephant and Castle late at night, it is a place where adventure travelers gather. The British are some of the best explorers in the world and their Royal Geographical Society is a meeting place and resource for those who want more out of travel than a cruise to the Bahamas.
The society was founded in ...James Cameron completes solo dive of the Mariana Trench
Mar 27th, 2012 at 8:00AM: A couple of weeks ago we told you about James Cameron's plans to dive the Mariana Trench, a massive canyon in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that marks the deepest point on our planet. This past weekend Cameron saw those plans come to fruition when he crawled inside his specially built submersible – dubbed the DeepSea Challenger – and piloted the vehicle nearly seven miles beneath the ...L'Anse aux Meadows: A Viking colony in Canada
Mar 15th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
The Vikings were some of the best sailors of the Middle Ages. They sailed all over the Mediterranean, far up the rivers of Russia and across the north Atlantic to colonize Iceland and Greenland. For a long time archaeologists wondered if they ever made it to other parts of North America besides Greenland. Although some Viking sagas mention a land called Vinland to the west of Greenland, no ...Ghosts of Scott and Amundsen still haunt the South Pole
Dec 14th, 2011 at 9:30AM: Exactly 100 years ago today, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, effectively ending a race that he had been engaged in for years with his British rival, Robert Falcon Scott. Both men had been eager to become the first to plant his country's flag at 90ºS, and in doing so, they created one of the most indelible and tragic stories in the history of ...Amsterdam's Maritime Museum
Nov 17th, 2011 at 3:00PM: Amsterdam owes its wealth to the sea. In the Golden Age of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Dutch sailed around the world looking for rare products to bring back to Europe. They were one of the great maritime powers and are still important in shipping today.
Amsterdam is a city made for the sea. Its canals are laid out like a spider's web, where every family that could afford it built a narrow ...A classic sailing ship in northern Spain
Sep 25th, 2011 at 11:30AM: If you've been following my travels here at Gadling, you know I've moved to Santander in northern Spain and am busy settling in. I've had my first of many hikes in Cantabria and have even ventured into the chilly northern surf. I need to buy a wetsuit.
One advantage of living in a port is you get to see sights like this, a reconstructed sailing ship from the Golden Age of Sail. Called the Nao ...Naval Museum in Madrid: an overlooked treasure
Sep 12th, 2011 at 12:00PM: After six years of living in Madrid, I've finally made it to the Naval Museum.
It's overlooked by most tourists. In fact, it's overlooked by a lot of madrileños. I've met some locals who didn't even know it exists. Perhaps being so far away from the sea they don't expect there to be a major naval museum downtown. It also doesn't help that it's tucked behind a modest facade that's easy to ...Amazing photographic animation of Cassini's Saturn flyby
Sep 10th, 2011 at 12:00PM:
The Cassini unmanned probe to Saturn has been a resounding success. A joint project between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency, it's been studying the ringed planet since 2004. Cassini has been sending back detailed images of Saturn, its rings, and its moons and expanding our knowledge of the solar system.
Check out this amazing video made up of hundreds of ...
Contemplating the risks and rewards of extreme adventure
Jun 16th, 2011 at 8:00AM: This past weekend I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Outside in Aspen event held annually in Aspen, Colorado. The three-day festival is a gathering of like-minded outdoor enthusiasts who get together to enjoy some fantastic activities such as hiking, climbing, and mountain biking, while basking in the great spring weather of the Rocky Mountains.
One of the highlights of this year's ...Hiking the Basque coastline
May 27th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
While the Sierra de Toloño offers some amazing trails and views, the most alluring sights I've seen in the Basque region are along its coastline.
The coast of northeast Spain and southwest France along the Bay of Biscay is part of the Basque heartland. Inland villages played a key role in keeping Basque culture alive, but it's the ports--Bilbao, San Sebastian, and many smaller ...Second-to-last Space Shuttle launch is big tourism draw
Apr 28th, 2011 at 8:30AM:
Tomorrow's launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour has turned into a major tourist event, the Associated Press reports. NASA estimates half a million people will show up for their second-to-last chance to see a shuttle launch. Other estimates vary from 250,000 to a whopping 700,000. That could rival the crowds that came to see the first Moon mission.
Hotels are sold out and homeowners near ...
