The Exploration — Google Arts & Culture

The world before 1520

What could we find in the maps before the expedition?

Marine Navigation Chart

Take a tour through this chart made by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1516

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When was the Strait of Magellan first sailed?

In 1521

Map of Strait of Magellan (Jodocus Hondius)

The art of sailing

How the art of navigation underwent a series of profound changes.

How To Find Your Way Without GPS

Explore the instruments and techniques used during the voyage

"There are not foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign."Robert Louis Stevenson

Encountering other cultural realities

The people that the crew met along the way

Magellan's Voyage And The Perspective Of "Otherness"

Explore other cultural realities through the diaries of Pigafetta

Different Cultures Under The Same Sky

Find out about the people of Patagonia, and their cultures and worldviews.

What species did the crew spot?

The creatures that Pigafetta recorded in his diary

The Animals Spotted On The Sail to Patagonia

The revelation that the world was more diverse than imagined...

The Animals Spotted While Sailing the Pacific

Encounters with new and exciting species

"They told us that these birds come from the terrestrial Paradise, and they call them 'bolon dinata,' that is 'divine birds."Antonio Pigafetta

Looking up at the sky...

The skies over the first global circumnavigation

Recreating The Celestial Sphere Of 500 Years Ago

Use the constellations to find your way, just as the crew of the Magellan-Elcano expedition did 500 years ago.