Even now, more than 250 years on from the first documented journey into Antarctic waters, Antarctica remains a land of secrets and mystery. Simultaneously the southernmost, highest, driest, windiest, coldest and iciest continent on the planet, this remote land has inspired ancient legends and modern science in equal measure. With around 98% of its surface cloaked in thick ice, we’ve excavated some of the incredible stories hidden beneath.
Click through this gallery to discover the fascinating history of the frozen continent, from its heroic human explorers to its astonishing animal inhabitants...
Long before the first European explorers set sail for Antarctica, there were whispers of a vast ‘Terra Australis Incognita’, or unknown land, at the bottom of the Southern Hemisphere. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle – knowing the Earth was round – suggested that there must be an Antarctic landmass to balance the Arctic, though he never proved it. Polynesians might have been the first humans to lay eyes on Antarctica – 7th-century oral tradition tells of Maori explorers venturing to the frozen south. The 1602 Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (Chinese world map) pictured here features a huge southern continent – at that point unexplored.
For the majority of the past 100 million years, Antarctica was not the icy wilderness we recognise today. Instead, it was a green haven with a tropical climate, home to prehistoric possums, beavers and forests. An ancient supercontinent named Gondwana is thought to have splintered and separated, with a great chunk of it drifting south and splitting from Australia and New Zealand to form Antarctica. Estimates suggest that Antarctica has only been frozen for between 15 and 34 million years, and fossilised wood, leaves (pictured), marine creatures, insects, molluscs, land-dwelling mammals and dinosaurs have all been unearthed here.
Nowadays the continent is divided by the Transantarctic Mountains into two unequal parts: East Antarctica, which is a high icy plateau, and West Antarctica, which is mountainous and bordered by two deep bays. The mostly circular continent clusters around the South Pole, the southern tip of the Earth’s axis, but is broken up by the Antarctic Peninsula, a spur of land flaring north towards South America. The massive ice sheet engulfing the continent constitutes about 90% of the planet’s glacial ice.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that the world’s lowest temperature was recorded during the Antarctic winter. On 21 July 1983, readings taken at Vostok Station, then a Soviet research station in what is now Princess Elizabeth Land, showed an unfathomably bitter -89.2°C (-128.6°F). Brutal conditions such as this, coupled with Antarctica’s isolated location, mean there is no native or permanent human population on the continent. Nevertheless, life finds a way here; more than 800 hardy species of plants and plantlike organisms call this frozen desert home.
Yes – and the world’s largest, at that. It might not have hazy heat or rolling sand dunes, but Antarctica is classed as a desert due to its low level of precipitation. Deserts can be subtropical, coastal, interior, rain shadow or polar, but all are defined by arid, barren conditions. While Antarctica’s hostile climate can support some cold and dark-tolerant plants, such as lichens, the continent’s resident animal communities (penguins, whales, seals and seabirds, to name a few) mostly turn to the ocean for sustenance.
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The Antarctic continental glacier – the largest body of ice on Earth – is one of only two ice sheets to survive the last Ice Age (the other being the Greenland ice sheet). It covers more than 5.4 million square miles (14m sqkm) and is around 1.2 miles (2km) thick. In addition, Antarctica includes two kinds of floating ice masses: semi-permanent glacial ice shelves (from which icebergs are calved) and ice pack, which melts and freezes seasonally. This ice pack is in continuous flux, and is why Antarctica is sometimes called the pulsating continent.
As well as mapping Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, Captain James Cook (pictured) dedicated three years of his life to the search for Antarctica. On 17 January 1773, he became the first known European navigator to cross into the Antarctic Circle, but he never found the continent itself. Blighted by the icy Southern Ocean, Cook abandoned his mission in 1775 – though it was later noted that, at one point, he came as close as 80 miles (129km) from Antarctic shores.
Cook was adamant that no one would ever better his attempt, but, in 1820, his efforts were topped. Driven by a desire for economic and territorial dominance, Russia sent naval officer Fabian von Bellingshausen to track down the unknown continent, while the British entrusted the task to Edward Bransfield. It’s believed that the men sighted Antarctic land within three days of one another, with von Bellingshausen the first. However, neither became the first person known to have set foot on the continent. That honour likely belongs to John Davis, skipper of the American vessel Cecilia, who made landfall in 1821.
Two years later, British explorer James Weddell broke the record for the furthest south an Antarctic voyage had ever travelled – this 1826 painting shows his ships approaching the continent. Another Brit, James Clark Ross, made more significant discoveries on his 1839 to 1843 expedition, namely the Ross Sea, the Ross Ice Shelf and Victoria Land. Countries like France and the USA also launched their own Antarctic expeditions during the 1830s and 1840s.
The turn of the century and the first two decades of the 1900s became known as the 'heroic era' of Antarctic exploration. It began when the Belgian ship Belgica became the first vessel to winter in Antarctica after getting trapped in ice between 1898 and 1899. Later in 1899, Norwegian explorer Carsten Borchgrevink led the first planned overwintering on the Antarctic mainland, also becoming the first expedition to use sled dogs. The now ruined huts (pictured) built by Borchgrevink and his team at Cape Adare are thought to be the oldest surviving man-made structures in Antarctica.
In the early 20th century, three of the heroic era’s MVPs – Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott – set out to reach the South Pole. Shackleton’s 1907-09 attempt was unsuccessful – his team only came within 97 miles (156km) of the Pole and almost lost their lives. Having led his first expedition to the Antarctic in 1901-04, Scott left Britain on his follow-up expedition on 15 June 1910. Amundsen, who had been aboard the Belgica during its accidental overwintering in Antarctic waters, departed Norway a couple of months later on 9 August. Here is Scott’s vessel, the Terra Nova, photographed by Herbert Ponting.
On 15 December 1911, Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole. Before heading back to base, his five-man party left messages and spare kit behind for Scott, who reached the Pole with his four companions on 18 January 1912 (pictured). But due to terrible weather and a lack of vital provisions, the group never made it home. Heartbreakingly, Scott and his two last surviving men were only 11 miles (18km) from safety when they perished. Their bodies were found seven months after Scott made his last diary entry on 29 March 1912.
After his failed endeavour to reach the South Pole, Ernest Shackleton organised the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-17, aiming to become the first to cross the frozen continent from sea to sea via the Pole. But disaster struck on 19 January 1915 when his ship, Endurance, was compacted and eventually crushed by the pack ice of the Weddell Sea. The party of 28 men, having abandoned ship on 27 October, endured an astonishing odyssey of survival that culminated with Shackleton completing a desperate two-week voyage to South Georgia aboard a small lifeboat. The entire expedition was eventually rescued, and the Endurance's wreck (pictured) was only discovered in 2022.
While the heroic era ended with Shackleton’s death from a heart attack in South Georgia in 1922, exploration of this mysterious continent continued through the 20th century. A milestone achievement in 1958 declared Vivian Fuchs (centre) and his men (Mount Everest climber Edmund Hilllary among them, left) the first people to successfully cross Antarctica overland. In 1992-93, legendary adventurer Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Mike Stroud became the first to traverse the continent unsupported, without additional assistance or supplies.
Before Caroline Mikkelsen became the first known woman to set foot on the continent in 1935, Antarctica was a man’s world. Until as recently as the 1970s women were banned from working on Antarctic land. Kathleen Scott, Robert Falcon Scott’s wife, helped fundraise for his expedition but she wasn’t allowed to join him, and it wasn’t until 1993 that the first women actually reached the South Pole. In 2011, at the age of 75, Barbara Hillary (pictured) became the first black woman to stand on the South Pole, while Felicity Aston was the first woman ever to cross the Antarctic landmass solo.
The pursuit of personal prestige and scientific discovery formed the basis of many 20th-century expeditions to the Antarctic, but some were also driven by nationalism and politics. Seven countries have made formal claims on parts of the continent: Norway, Australia, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Chile and Argentina. Chile and Argentina even arranged for babies to be born in Antarctica to strengthen their claims of sovereignty. However, the Antarctic Treaty mandates that no single country owns the continent.
The Antarctic Treaty was signed by 12 different countries and came into force in 1961. Along with the Madrid Protocol agreed in 1991, it ensures that Antarctica is reserved solely for cooperative scientific study and other peaceful, non-political purposes. The treaties declared the continent ‘a natural reserve’ – a place for research stations (pictured) instead of military bases – where the fragile environment and its ecosystems should be prioritised over human need. For example, most wastewater generated at research stations is treated and recycled, while solid waste is sometimes shipped off-continent for disposal.
Antarctica’s whales and seals were mercilessly hunted for their baleen, blubber and pelts – particularly in the first half of the 20th century. The killing was so extensive that some species were almost entirely driven from Antarctic waters. Today, many Antarctic shores are still scarred with the remains of abandoned whaling stations. This composite humpback whale skeleton has been displayed on King George Island since around 1973, when it was pieced together by French conservationist and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau to protest commercial whaling. The practice was fully banned in Antarctica in the mid-1980s.
Nowadays, Antarctic waters house several species of seals and cetaceans. Orcas, humpback whales, leopard seals, elephant seals and Weddell seals (the most southerly land-breeding mammal in the world) are sighted relatively often, while the region's giants – Antarctic blue whales – remain critically endangered following years of mass slaughter. Arguably the most famous animal inhabitant of all is the beloved penguin. Emperor, king (pictured), gentoo, Adelie, chinstrap and macaroni penguins can be seen across the continent.
It’s thought that the first tourists entered the subantarctic region around the 1880s, after paying to be passengers on industrial vessels. Over the next few decades, as Antarctic exploration increased, ships started sailing ever further south. In the mid-20th century, Argentina and Chile operated some of the earliest tourist voyages to the frozen continent. The first tourists reached the South Pole in 1988, and Antarctic tourism boomed after the fall of the Soviet Union, as its ice-worthy ships were repurposed for cruises. Antarctic tourism remains a large and growing industry.
Most people sailing to Antarctica will need to brave the Drake Passage, a deep stretch of sea between Cape Horn (the southernmost tip of South America) and the South Shetland Islands. Named after English seaman Sir Francis Drake, it is notorious for violent winds and ferocious waves which, without any land to interrupt its barrelling currents, can result in extremely testing conditions. It’s considered one of the most treacherous ocean crossings on Earth. But don’t worry, most ships carry their own sick bags.
Antarctica has lost 7.5 trillion tonnes of ice since 1997, and more than 40% of its ice shelves have retreated amid the ongoing climate emergency. According to the European Space Agency, the loss of ice is so severe that it is even slightly altering the Earth’s gravity. The South Pole has been warming at three times the global mean over the past three decades, while the Antarctic Peninsula is the fastest warming place in the Southern Hemisphere – air temperatures rose between the 1950s and early 2000s at more than five times the global average.
Everyone knows that Antarctica is home to the South Pole, but it’s also where you’ll find (or most likely not) the southern pole of inaccessibility. Said to be one of the most remote places on the entire planet, it’s the point on the Antarctic continent most distant from any coastline. Cape Town in South Africa is the closest city. With a year-round average temperature of -58.2°C (-72°F), you might wonder how any human ever got here – let alone a giant bust of Lenin. It was erected at a Soviet research base here in 1958, facing towards Moscow.
Antarctica has more than 400 lakes hiding beneath its sprawling ice sheets. The largest of these, locked beneath East Antarctica, is Lake Vostok, covering an expanse of 4,826 square miles (12,500sq km). It is the world’s sixth largest lake by volume and could be up to 15 million years old. Subglacial lakes like Vostok are part of a wider hydrological network on the continent that includes rivers and estuaries.
The ominously named Blood Falls sticks out from Antarctica’s predominantly white and blue landscape like a sore thumb. Oozing down from the Taylor Glacier, the five-tier waterfall was first discovered in 1911, and geologists initially thought the rust-red colouring came from algae. But it turns out the 'bleeding' phenomenon comes from the iron-rich water of a saline lake trapped beneath the ice, which reacts with the air as it pours from the glacier. There, microbes have been slowly evolving in isolation – untouched for millennia.
Antarctica is the most 'seismically quiet' of all Earth's continents, with few major earthquakes and limited volcanic activity. The majority of its volcanoes (there are at least 138 in West Antarctica alone) are either dormant or buried beneath the ice sheet. The continent currently has only two consistently active volcanoes – Mount Erebus and Deception Island (pictured). Erebus is the southernmost active volcano in the world, while Deception Island is a dystopian caldera whose otherworldly landscape is littered with derelict buildings, boats and whaling stations.
Antarctica's so-called 'penguin post office' (pictured) is the most southerly in the world, and processes up to 80,000 letters and postcards a year. Located at Port Lockroy on Goudier Island, the site sees around 18,000 annual tourist visits and is managed by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT), who invite applications for a new team every year. Those that work here must be intrepid, happy with their own company and prepared to only shower every one to two weeks. A charming (but smelly) colony of gentoo penguins make up the local neighbourhood.
This photo captures the moment hard rock icons Metallica became the first band to gig on all seven continents. They played to a modest crowd of 120 scientists, ship crew and competition winners in 2013. This isn't Antarctica's only outlandish record – the following year, an American scientist at McMurdo Station became the first person on the continent to match with someone (a fellow researcher a 45-minute helicopter ride away) on a dating app. In 2024, Donna Urquhart, an Australian ultramarathon runner, made history by completing Antarctica's longest ever run.
Needless to say, plenty of surprising stories have played out on the world's most remote continent. In 2019, a telescope at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station helped capture the first image of a supermassive black hole, while spacesuits created for possible use on Mars have been tested here thanks to its unforgiving conditions. Another odd fact involves Australian doctors – they must have their appendix removed before wintering at Antarctic research stations. There's usually only one doctor on duty during this time, and they can't risk contracting appendicitis.
Antarctic tourism is regulated, but the continent still has a tricky relationship with visitors. Not only can cruises to Antarctica be prohibitively expensive (easily £10,000/$12,575), they also have an unavoidable impact on the environment. Even the carbon footprint of the journey is substantial, potentially involving multiple long flights. If you can’t resist the lure of a truly once-in-a-lifetime Antarctic voyage, be sure to travel with a responsible and sustainable tour operator.
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