On August 10, 1519, King Charles of Spain watched naval officers Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano set sail to the ‘Spice Islands’, now the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. 239 brave men...
Read Part 1 Tracing a Possible Route for the Voyagers Sailing southwards along the eastern seaboards of Australia and Tasmania, the voyagers would round the east coast of Antarctica and, initially,...
Today, many people believe that Christopher Columbus was not the first non-American to set foot in the New World. The Vikings, Chinese , Greeks , and Italians may have all been his predecessors...
Saint Brendan (also referred to by his various epithets ‘the Navigator’, ‘the Voyager’, ‘the Anchorite’, and ‘the Bold’) was an Irish saint who lived between the 5th and 6th centuries AD known for...
Just south of Awendaw, South Carolina, in the Francis Marion National Forest, is an example of a type of architectural artifact that still baffles archaeologists. For every explanation someone offers...
On a chilly winter day in 1929, Halil Edhem, the Director of Turkey's National Museum, was hunched over his solitary task of classifying documents. He pulled towards him a map drawn on Roe deer skin...
Henry IV of Spain – known as "The Impotent" for his weakness, both on the throne and (allegedly) in the marriage chamber – died in 1474. A long and inconclusive war of succession ensued, pitting...
In economics one hears talk of “the curse of oil” – and one might say wherever there is buried treasure there will be a curse, hyper-real or real. The most famous of all curses is of course that...
The Vikings’ next step out into the Atlantic – the discovery and settlement of Iceland – is one of the best documented events of the Viking Age. Medieval Icelanders were fascinated by genealogy, not...
The Bat Creek stone was discovered in a small mound near Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. The archaeologists who dug it up in 1889 discovered a small stone tablet engraved with several mysterious...
One of the most famous voyages of people who traveled from England to Virginia was on the Mayflower. This ship became the symbol of the search for a new life and pilgrimage to the New World in the...
History is a record of the past – sculptured by omissions, interlarded with distortions, brazen lies and innocent befuddlement – forming an amalgam that's often stubbornly resistant to analysis. For...
Today, Manhattan is one of the iconic locations of the United States of America. It is also the place where New York was born. However, the origins of Manhattan are often forgotten these days. Modern...
Poseidon the great god I begin to sing, he who moves the earth and the desolate sea… You are dark-haired you are blessed you have a kind heart. Help those who sail upon The sea In ships. ~Homeric...
Zheng He (also known as Cheng Ho) is one of the most famous admirals in Chinese history, and is best known for his treasure voyages. These voyages served to project the power and the wealth of the...
Many speak of observing the Christmas holidays with a return to more traditional or spiritual celebrations, but one man is taking that to heart by going on a medieval pilgrimage across England. He is...