Discovery and Exploration Reading List - JSCC Pioneer Con 2024

Massive pyramids tower over the Giza Plateau near Cairo, Egypt. Built in the Bronze Age, these immense stone structures were engineered with remarkable precision. How did the ancient Egyptians construct them without the use of modern tools? Why were they built? Throughout the centuries, historians and archaeologists have studied the pyramids and other Egyptian artifacts in search of possible answers to these questions. The pyramids are filled with mysterious doors and passageways--what other secrets and treasures might lie inside? Find out more about the myths, science, and technology surrounding the creation and exploration of the Egyptian pyramids.

This unique book reveals the existence of an advanced civilization where none was known before, presenting an entirely new perspective on the culture and history of Tibet. In his groundbreaking study of an epic period in Tibet few people even knew existed, John Vincent Bellezza details the discovery of an ancient people on the most desolate reaches of the Tibetan plateau, revolutionizing our ideas about who Tibetans really are. While many associate Tibet with Buddhism, it was also once a land of warriors and chariots, whose burials included megalithic arrays and golden masks.

Russia first encountered Alaska in 1741 as part of the most ambitious and expensive expedition of the entire eighteenth century. For centuries since, cartographers have struggled to define and develop the enormous region comprising northeastern Asia, the North Pacific, and Alaska. The forces of nature and the follies of human error conspired to make the area incredibly difficult to map. Exploring and Mapping Alaska focuses on this foundational period in Arctic cartography.  Russia spurred a golden era of cartographic exploration, while shrouding their efforts in a veil of secrecy. They drew both on old systems developed by early fur traders and new methodologies created in Europe. With Great Britain, France, and Spain following close behind, their expeditions led to an astounding increase in the world?s knowledge of North America. Through engrossing descriptions of the explorations and expert navigators, aided by informative illustrations, readers can clearly trace the evolution of the maps of the era, watching as a once-mysterious region came into sharper focus. The result of years of cross-continental research, Exploring and Mapping Alaska is a fascinating study of the trials and triumphs of one of the last great eras of historic mapmaking.

In 1911 an American explorer came across an ancient city hidden high in the Andes Mountains of Peru. Since then, explorers, archaeologists, and tourists have been fascinated by this beautiful and mysterious city known as Machu Picchu. The city appears to have been carefully constructed--every stone is perfectly cut and placed. The Inca people built Machu Picchu at the height of their empire, but no one knows for sure how or why they created it. Read all about the myths and theories surrounding Machu Picchu and its history, as well as the science archaeologists are using to understand this ancient city.

This book examines the relationship between medieval European mythologies of the non-Western world and the initial Portuguese and Spanish voyages of expansion and exploration to Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Herewith an historical journey from the third century to the multiethnic metropolis of the twentieth century, bringing together two diverse histories of the city. Ancient Alexandria was built by the Greek Ptolemies who in thirty years completed the first lighthouse and the grand library and museum which functioned as a university with the emphasis on science, known as 'The Alexandrian School', attracting scholars from all over the ancient world. Two of the most eminent were Euclid, the father of geometry, and Claudios Ptolemy, writer of The Almagest, a book on astronomy.