Publish at April 07 2020 Updated January 07 2026
When we speak of great explorers, we usually think of guys like Magellan, Marco Polo or Christopher Columbus, who showed European peoples the realities of the world, believing they were the center of everything. And yet, as far back as antiquity, a Greek scientist named Pytheas had succeeded in reaching moors that would not be seen until years later. Setting out from Massalia (now Marseille), he crossed the Columns of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar) and explored many places and peoples.
Indeed, he would have skirted Armorica and Great Britain. He even made contact with the British peoples and went further afield, reaching what he described as the island of Thule (possibly Iceland or Norway). There, he would have seen a night lasting only two hours and an impassable area of sea resembling a sea lung (pack ice forming). A journey that was not believed by his contemporaries, for whom the things he depicted had never been observed.
Running time: 8:26
Illustration : Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
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