The 5 most unexplored places on Earth

If you count the worlds oceans then humans have yet to explore well over half the planet. What lays under the water on the sea bed is a mystery to everyone and its not likely we are going to find out whats down there any time soon. But when it comes to what we can actually get to there’s still a surprising amount of land left to explore, but also some very good reasons why we haven’t.

The Vale do Javari – Brazil

This is officially the most unexplored area of land people can actually get to and covers an area of 85,444.82 km2 which makes it bigger than several dozen other countries. The territory is home to around 2,000 indigenous people who belong to between 15 and 20 tribes, all of which are un-contacted and live autonomously from the Government. There are heavy restrictions placed on the Vale do Javari to stop various companies from entering the territory and chopping down trees or mining oil, it also stops people from visiting there under any circumstances. One interesting thing about this area is that it was a known site for the tribes that were in the region when the Spanish landed during the 16th century and is believed to be home to a number of ruins, possibly even one of the famous lost Amazonian cities.

Southern Namibia

This country is supposed to be home to the oldest desert in the world and is one of the most unexplored places in all of Africa. The countries coast line also has its own name given to it by European sailors who were unfortunate enough to be washed ashore here. The Skeleton coast is the site of a deadly current that’s formed by the Indian Ocean meeting the South Atlantic Ocean, causing a constant flow that heads right towards the skeleton coast. On the south-west of the country is a large desert about 70 miles (ca. 113 km) wide that doesn’t have a single village in it. The constantly flowing hills and mountains combined with the complete lack of water makes it a very difficult place to explore, and even with ample supplies the sheer number of valleys would take a person a lifetime to visit.

Ellesmere Island – Nunavut territory, Canada

This huge island covers 196,235 km² which makes it about twice as big as South Korea, but it only has a population of around 150 people. The island is home to a number of small glaciers that have covered the island in a huge river system, making it very hard to maneuver around. The capital of the island is a tiny village that is home to almost the entire population leaving distances of hundreds of miles were you won’t find a single man-made object. The combination of the extreme weather and how hard it is to move around the island has put anyone off from exploring it properly, and all we know of most areas come from satellite maps and Arial photography.

The trans-antarctic mountain range – Antarctica

The continent of Antarctica is huge, covering an area close to one and a half times the size of Canada. Its divided into an east and west section by the trans-antarctic mountain range which runs for 2,200 miles (ca. 3,541 km) and includes hundreds of individual peaks. Even though researchers have been able to take pictures of most of the peaks, climbing them is another matter. Apart from being the coldest place on earth the continent is home to some of the harshest weather which makes it impossible to climb such huge mountains without ample support from a well stocked base camp. A handful of the smaller mountains around the research stations have been climbed but the vast majority of them, including every single one in the center of the continent is yet to be climbed. There are so many unseen areas of this mountain range that could be home to many wonderful and strange finds, but it won’t be likely that they are properly explored for hundreds of years.

North Sentinel island – Indian Ocean

There are two Sentinel islands in the Indian ocean, the southern of which has a number of people living on it just like they do on the mainland, but the northern one is home to the most aggressive tribe known to man. The people known simply as the Sentinelese have always been known to attack anyone on sight the second that are within range. Arrows and spears are fired at helicopters and any sailors unlucky enough to wash up there are killed without question. The only time the island was explored by anyone who wasn’t in the tribe was in 1880 when a group of British navy officers landed with a large group and overpowered the tribe. The British only search the island for a short while and every member of the tribe hid within the trees apart from 3 which were captured and taken back to the mainland. No maps were made on this expedition and since then no one has been to the island and lived, something which caused the local government to place restrictions on anyone going there.