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Defining the Limits
4 Antarctic Exploration
T
he discovery of Antarctica is a very
different story from that of the
Arctic. Arctic history starts 20,000
years ago. Antarctica was not even
seen until 1820.
The Southern Ocean surrounds
Antarctica. It is wide and deep. Early
humans and many animals could not
cross this ocean. This is why Antarctica
has remained isolated for so long.
Antarctica is the only continent
Europeans truly “discovered.” People
were living in most countries when the
Europeans arrived. However, there
were no people living in Antarctica
when the first explorers arrived there.
The Unknown Land
The Greeks thought that there must
be a large land in the south to balance
the lands they knew in the north. So the
idea of a vast southern continent
came about. The land at the South Pole
was called the “opposite of the Arctic,”
or Antarctic.
Many of these ideas were forgotten
during the
Middle Ages
. Only the
Arabs kept the Greek teachings alive
but few Europeans understood Arabic.
Latin was the language of teachers
and the churches in Europe. It was not
until the 15th century that the Greeks’
ideas were translated into Latin.
Nothing was known about the
southern continent of the Greek
teachings. It was called the “unknown
land in the south,” which is
Terra
Australis Incognita
in Latin.
T
he Greeks thought
Terra Australis
extended from the
Equator to the South
Pole. The map above
shows the Greek ideas.
T
he Portuguese
explorer, Magellan,
showed that a strait
separates South
America from
Terra Australis
.