| Name | Date of Birth | Date of Death | Short Biography |
|---|
| Mahmud Shah | | 1528 | the ruler of the Sultanate of Malacca from 1488 to 1511, and again as pretender to the throne from 1513 to 1528 |  |
| Tun Mutahir | | 1510 | a famous Bendahara of the Malaccan Sultanate | |
| Francisco Serrão | | 1521 | a Portuguese explorer and a cousin of Ferdinand Magellan | |
| Faxian | 337 | 442 | a Chinese Buddhist monk who travelled by foot from China to India, visiting many sacred Buddhist sites in what are now Xinjiang, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka between 399-412 to acquire Buddhist texts. | |
| Xuanzang | 602 | 664 | a Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator who travelled to India in the sixth century and described the interaction between Chinese Buddhism and Indian Buddhism during the early Tang dynasty. | |
| Marco Polo | 1254 | 1324 | an Italian merchant, explorer, and writer, born in the Republic of Venice. | |
| Muhammad Ibn Battuta | 1304 | 1369 | a Moroccan scholar who widely traveled the medieval world. | |
| Zheng He | 1371 | 1435 | a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty | |
| Hong Bao | 1412 | 1433 | a Chinese eunuch sent on overseas diplomatic missions during the reigns of the Yongle Emperor and Xuande Emperor in the Ming dynasty. | |
| Francisco de Almeida | 1450 | 1510 | a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer | |
| Christopher Columbus | 1451 | 1506 | an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer | |
| Afonso de Albuquerque | 1453 | 1515 | a Portuguese general, a "great conqueror", a statesman, and an empire builder. | |
| Amerigo Vespucci | 1454 | 1512 | an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer | |
| Vasco da Gama | 1460 | 1524 | a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea | |
| Diogo Lopes de Sequeira | 1465 | 1530 | a Portuguese fidalgo, sent to analyze the trade potential in Madagascar and Malacca | |
| Ludovico di Varthema | 1470 | 1517 | an Italian traveller, diarist and aristocrat known for being the first non-Muslim European to enter Mecca as a pilgrim | |
| Francisco Pizarro | 1474 | 1541 | a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that conquered the Inca Empire. He captured and killed Incan emperor Atahualpa, and claimed the lands for Spain. | |
| Ferdinand Magellan | 1480 | 1521 | a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano | |
| Hernán Cortés | 1485 | 1547 | a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century | |
| Luis de Almeida | 1525 | 1583 | a Portuguese surgeon, merchant and missionary of the Society of Jesus in Japan. He is credited for establishing the first "western" hospital in Japan. | |
| Sir Francis Drake | 1540 | 1596 | an English sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer and explorer of the Elizabethan era. | |
| Henry Hudson | 1565 | | an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States. | |
| John Smith | 1580 | 1631 | an English soldier, explorer, colonial governor, Admiral of New England, and author | |
| Captain James Cook | 1728 | 1779 | a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. | |
| Charles Willson Peale | 1741 | 1827 | an American painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. | |
| Sir Alexander Mackenzie | 1764 | 1820 | a Scottish explorer | |
| William Clark | 1770 | 1838 | an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. | |
| Meriwether Lewis | 1774 | 1809 | an American explorer, soldier, politician, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark. | |
| John Leyden | 1775 | 1811 | a Scottish orientalist | |
| Lady Hester Stanhope | 1776 | 1839 | a British socialite, adventurer and traveller | |
| Roderick Murchison | 1792 | 1871 | a British geologist who first described and investigated the Silurian system | |
| Charles Darwin | 1809 | 1882 | an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. | |
| David Livingstone | 1813 | 1873 | a Scottish Christian Congregationalist, pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of the late-19th-century Victorian era | |
| Robert O'Hara Burke | 1821 | 1861 | an Irish soldier and police officer who achieved fame as an Australian explorer | |
| Samuel Baker | 1821 | 1893 | an English explorer, officer, naturalist, big game hunter, engineer, writer and abolitionist | |
| Richard Francis Burton | 1821 | 1890 | a British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer, and diplomat. | |
| James Augustus Grant | 1827 | 1892 | a Scottish explorer of eastern equatorial Africa | |
| John Hanning Speke | 1827 | 1864 | an English explorer and officer in the British Indian Army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa | |
| Colin Archer | 1832 | 1921 | a Norwegian naval architect and shipbuilder from Larvik, Norway. He was known for building safe and durable ships including the Fram used in both Fridtjof Nansen's and Roald Amundsen's polar expeditions. | |
| William John Wills | 1834 | 1861 | a British surveyor who also trained as a surgeon | |
| Henry Morton Stanley | 1841 | 1904 | a Welsh journalist and explorer who was famous for his exploration of central Africa and his search for missionary and explorer David Livingstone | |
| Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza | 1852 | 1905 | an Italian explorer | |
| Fridtjof Nansen | 1861 | 1930 | a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate | |
| Baron Adrien de Gerlache | 1866 | 1934 | Baron Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery (2 August 1866 – 4 December 1934) was an officer in the Belgian Royal Navy who led the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897–99. | |
| Gertrude Bell | 1868 | 1926 | an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making | |
| Roald Amundsen | 1872 | 1928 | a Norwegian explorer of polar regions | |
| Sir Ernest Shackleton | 1874 | 1922 | a polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, and one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. | |
| Harriet Chalmers Adams | 1875 | 1937 | an American explorer, writer and photographer. | |
| Umberto Nobile | 1885 | 1978 | an Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer. Nobile was a developer and promoter of semi-rigid airships during the period between the two World Wars. | |
| Thomas Edward Lawrence | 1888 | 1935 | a British archaeologist, military officer, diplomat, and writer | |
| Dame Freya Stark | 1893 | 1993 | a British-Italian explorer and travel writer | |
| Charles Lindbergh | 1902 | 1974 | an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, explorer, and environmental activist | |
| Evelyn Waugh | 1903 | 1966 | an English writer of novels, biographies and travel books. | |
| Neil Armstrong | 1930 | 2012 | an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who was the first person to walk on the Moon. | |