In the film Seven Years in Tibet, Brad Pitt portrayed Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, who in 1944 attempted to climb Nanga Parbat in honor of Nazi Germany (he was a member of the SS). However, this was not the first time the Hitler regime had embarked on such an endeavor. In fact, the Nazi leadership […]
Expeditions
Posted inAncient Rome
Maes Titianus, the Merchant Who Organized the First Roman Expedition to China
Trade has been, since time immemorial, one of the main driving forces behind contact between civilizations. In this context, the Silk Road played a crucial role in connecting the Mediterranean world with the Far East. Among the many figures who contributed to this exchange, one of the earliest was Maes Titianus. This Macedonian merchant, of […]
Posted inAge of Exploration
When the Dutch Attacked the English and French Colonies in America and Reclaimed New York
In that article we dedicated to the tragic end of the Dutch Prime Minister and his brother in 1672, we explained that the Treaty of Dover, signed between Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France, led to the so-called Third Anglo-Dutch War. In this conflict, the French army was halted by the floods […]
Posted inAge of Exploration, Archaeology
Nature of the Enigmatic “Armas de la tierra” of the Coronado Expedition in the 16th Century Revealed
Recent research has unveiled the nature of the weaponry used by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition (which crossed the present-day U.S. states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas), referred to as Armas de la tierra (weapons of the earth), which had until now remained an enigma. This study, led by Deni J. Seymour, […]
Posted inModern Era
Bothie, the Only and Last Dog to Have Set Foot on Both Poles of the Earth
The 1983 Pet of the Year award in Great Britain went to a dog that entered the Guinness Book of World Records, whose popularity led to the commercialization of stuffed animals, posters, and toys featuring his image, and who became the subject of a story about the great adventure that earned him all those honors: […]
Posted inModern Era
Peter Freuchen, the Explorer who Survived by Making a Knife from his Own Frozen Feces
The history of explorations features a roster of people who, evidently, are out of the ordinary. They have very special, peculiar personalities, often difficult to categorize and always with a common denominator of bomb-proof determination. A good example of this was Peter Freuchen, who is not very well known because his field of action was […]
Posted inModern Era
Lapulapu, the Filipino chief turned national hero who killed Magellan
On August 10, 1519 began the expedition that circumnavigated the globe for the first time. We all know the names of several of its protagonists: Magellan, Elcano, Pigafetta, Charles I… Today we are going to see the story of another whose casual participation in this adventure had a decisive impact: Lapulapu, the chief of the […]
Posted inModern Era
Carsten Niebuhr, the scientist who crossed the Middle East disguised as an Arab as the only survivor of the Royal Danish Expedition
Scientific travel became widespread among European countries from the mid-18th century following the establishment of the Enlightenment. And although the most famous were led by the great powers of the time (United Kingdom, France, Spain …), there were other nations that joined the trend. One of them was Denmark, which in 1761 organized an expedition […]
