Robert Peary and sledge party with flags at the North Pole ">North_Pole.html" ;"title="Robert Peary and sledge party with flags at the North Pole">Robert Peary and sledge party with flags at the North Pole file:at the South Pole, December 1911.jpg"> Roald Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel">Helmer_Hanssen.html" ;"title="Roald Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen">Roald Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting at the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

file:Richard Westall (1765-1836) - Nelson and the Bear - BHC2907 - Royal Museums Greenwich.jpg, ''Nelson and the Bear'' by Richard Westall, 1809. It depicts the 1773 expedition to discover the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

. Polar exploration is the process of

exploration Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

of the

polar regions The polar regions, also called the frigid geographical zone, zones or polar zones, of Earth are Earth's polar ice caps, the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North Pole, North and South Poles), lying within the pol ...

of Earth – the Arctic region and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

– particularly with the goal of reaching the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

and

, respectively. Historically, this was accomplished by explorers making often arduous travels on foot or by sled in these regions, known as a polar expedition. More recently, exploration has been accomplished with technology, particularly with

satellite imagery Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell im ...

. From 600 BC to 300 BC,

Greek philosophers Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics ...

theorized that the planet was a

Spherical Earth Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of the figure of the Earth as a sphere. The earliest documented mention of the concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Ancient Greek philos ...

with North and South

polar region The polar regions, also called the frigid zones or polar zones, of Earth are Earth's polar ice caps, the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North and South Poles), lying within the polar circles. These high latitu ...

s. By 150 AD,

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

published ''Geographia'', which notes a hypothetical Terra Australis Incognita. However, due to harsh weather conditions, the poles themselves would not be reached for centuries after that. When they finally were reached, the achievement was realized only a few years apart. There are two claims, both disputed, about who were the first persons to reach the geographic North Pole.

Frederick Cook Frederick Albert Cook (June 10, 1865 – August 5, 1940) was an American explorer, physician and ethnographer, who is most known for allegedly being the first to reach the North Pole on April 21, 1908. A competing claim was made a year l ...

, accompanied by two

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

men, Ahwelah and Etukishook, claimed to have reached the Pole on April 21, 1908, although this claim is generally doubted. On April 6, 1909,

Robert Peary Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long credited as being ...

claimed to be the first person in

recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world h ...

to reach the North Pole, accompanied by his employee Matthew Henson and four Inuit men Ootah, Seegloo, Egingway, and Ooqueah. Norwegian explorer

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegians, Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Am ...

had planned to reach the North Pole by means of an extended drift in an icebound ship. He obtained the use of

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and co-founded the ...

's polar exploration ship '' Fram'', and undertook extensive fundraising. Preparations for this expedition were disrupted when Cook and Peary each claimed to have reached the North Pole. Amundsen then changed his plan and began to prepare for a conquest of the geographic South Pole; uncertain of the extent to which the public and his backers would support him, he kept this revised objective secret. When he set out in June 1910, he led even his crew to believe they were embarking on an Arctic drift, and revealed their true Antarctic destination only when ''Fram'' was leaving their last port of call, Madeira.

Amundsen's South Pole expedition The first ever expedition to reach the Geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four other crew members made it to the geographical south pole on 14 December 1911, which would prove to be five weeks ahea ...

, with Amundsen and four others, arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911,Some sources give the date as 15 December. Since the western and eastern hemispheres are conjoined at the South Pole, both dates can be considered as correct, though Amundsen gives 14 December, both in his first telegraphed report on arrival in Hobart, and in his fuller account, ''The South Pole''. Huntford, ''The Last Place on Earth'' (1985), p. 511. five weeks ahead of a British party led by

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott (6 June 1868 – ) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–04 and the Terra Nova Expedition ...

as part of the ''Terra Nova'' expedition. Amundsen and his team returned safely to their base, and later learned that Scott and his four companions had died on their return journey.

References

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See also

References