Created in association with the Royal Geographical Society, this is a fascinating and authoritative reference to the history of exploration. With almost 100 specially drawn maps and 300 photographs and illustrations, it traces the journeys of the discoverers of our world, recording their many achievements. Their motives are also examined: the desire for land, wealth and fame, missionary zeal, political and cultural empire-building, scientific inquiry or simply sheer curiosity.For this Second Edition, the final section of the book, Exploration Today, has been thoroughly updated and expanded. It includes the many discoveries over the last decade in the exploration of the rainforests and the deserts, and in the study of the Earth's most inhospitable regions, such as the ocean depths and the polar regions.The book also looks beyond the confines of the Earth to the Universe beyond and the exploration of space. The daring exploits of the first astronauts and the manned lunar landings are described, together with details of the unmanned missions to explore the surfaces of neighbouring planets in our Solar System.Biographical details of many of the great explorers, geographers and cartographers whose achievements are described in the text are included, and have been updated for this edition, together with a time chart summarizing the history of exploration over the past 5000 years.Main map scale: