The History of Antarctica

exploration · polar regions · geography · discovery

Ancient Mystery. Thousands of years ago, people imagined a huge continent called Terra Australis existed at the very bottom of the world, but no one had ever actually seen it. It was just a guess on maps.

Word Origin. A smart mapmaker named Marinus of Tyre invented the word Antarctic way back in the 2nd century AD to mean the opposite of the Arctic. It comes from the idea of opposing regions at Earth's north and south poles.

The Real Discovery. For hundreds of years after Marinus, people wondered if Terra Australis was real. Eventually, brave explorers sailed south through icy waters to find out what was actually there.

Polar Opposites. The term Antarctic was based on a simple idea: if there's an Arctic up north, there must be an Antarctic down south. This idea of opposites helped ancient people make sense of Earth's geography.