Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The era of European sea explorations began in the late 15th century and lasted for a little more than three full centuries. This is a list of notable sea explorers: Leif Eriksson, a norse viking discovered America some 500 years before Columbus, calling part of it Vinland Cheng Ho explored much of Asia and Africa. Christopher Columbus, discovered America Amerigo Vespucci, discovered other parts of America and gave his name to the new continent Vasco da Gama Ferdinand Magellan, discovered the Pacific Ocean Abel Tasman James Cook Bartolomeu Dias Samuel de Champlain Luis Vaez de Torres Henry Hudson Giovanni da Verrazano See also polar explorers and land explorers, explorers. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.