Just as the unknown regions of the world seized the imagination of the great explorers, so the exploits of those explorers continue to fascinate readers today. The book captures all the thrill of exploration; its fears, dangers and hardships; encounters with hostile landscapes and peoples, and the excitement of progress. All areas of the globe are covered and the journeys of explorers both famous and not so famous: Florence Baker in Egypt and Sudan; Mary Kingsley in
West Africa; Lewis and Clark across the US; Franklin and Leary at the North Pole and Amundsen and Scott at the South.

The book is arranged by region, and chronologically within that region. It captures the spirit of each age and explains how explorers, through reaching lands unknown to them, encountered peoples supporting advanced civilizations of their own. The final chapter examines the legacy of a region's exploration, by explaining its political, economic and other consequences, whether they be the settlement of a continent or the creation of lasting national myths, as in Scott's doomed mission to
Antarctica.