EXPLORERS from Poland

Top 7

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Polish Explorers of all time. This list of famous Polish Explorers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Emin Pasha (1840 - 1892)

With an HPI of 57.63, Emin Pasha is the most famous Polish Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages on wikipedia.

Mehmed Emin Pasha (born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer, baptized Eduard Carl Oscar Theodor Schnitzer; March 28, 1840 – October 23, 1892) was an Ottoman physician of German Jewish origin, naturalist, and governor of the Egyptian province of Equatoria on the upper Nile. The Ottoman Empire conferred the title "Pasha" on him in 1886, and thereafter he was referred to as "Emin Pasha".

2. Paweł Strzelecki (1797 - 1873)

With an HPI of 52.95, Paweł Strzelecki is the 2nd most famous Polish Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Sir Paweł Edmund Strzelecki (Polish pronunciation: [ˈpavɛw ˈɛdmunt stʂɛˈlɛt͡skʲi]; 20 July 1797 – 6 October 1873), also known as Paul Edmund de Strzelecki and Sir Paul Strzelecki, was a Polish explorer, geologist, humanitarian, environmentalist, nobleman, scientist, businessman and philanthropist who in 1845 also became a British subject. He is noted for his contributions to the exploration of Australia, particularly the Snowy Mountains and Tasmania, and for climbing and naming the highest – 2228 metres (7310 feet) – mountain on the continent, Mount Kosciuszko.

3. Otto Finsch (1839 - 1917)

With an HPI of 52.61, Otto Finsch is the 3rd most famous Polish Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839, Warmbrunn – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig) was a German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer. He is known for a two-volume monograph on the parrots of the world which earned him a doctorate. He also wrote on the people of New Guinea and was involved in plans for German colonization in Southeast Asia. Several species of bird (such as Oenanthe finschii, Iole finschii, Psittacula finschii) are named after him as also the town of Finschhafen in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea and a crater on the Moon.

4. Gustav Adolf von Götzen (1866 - 1910)

With an HPI of 51.85, Gustav Adolf von Götzen is the 4th most famous Polish Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Gustav Adolf Graf von Götzen (12 May 1866 – 1 December 1910) was a German explorer, colonial administrator, and military officer who served as Reichskommissar of German East Africa. He came to Rwanda in 1894 becoming the second European to enter the territory, since Oscar Baumann’s brief expedition in 1892, and later, he became the first European to cross the entire territory of Rwanda. During the Maji Maji Rebellion of 1905, Götzen commanded the Schutztruppe against several rebelling African tribes in the German East Africa colony, quelling the uprising. The rebellion and famine that followed resulted in the deaths of up to 300,000 people.

5. Theodor Kotschy (1813 - 1866)

With an HPI of 47.18, Theodor Kotschy is the 5th most famous Polish Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Karl Georg Theodor Kotschy Polish: Teodor Koczy (15 April 1813 – 11 June 1866) was an Austrian botanist and explorer. On his botanical investigations, Kotschy collected large amounts of plants. For example, he described forty species of oak in this work, most of which are now considered synonyms, but Quercus look is recognised as valid.

6. Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz (1936 - 2021)

With an HPI of 45.57, Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz is the 6th most famous Polish Explorer.  Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz (15 July 1936 – 13 June 2021) was a Polish naval engineer and sailor as well as the first woman to have sailed single-handed (i.e. solo) around the world, repeating the accomplishment of Joshua Slocum. She sailed from the Canary Islands on 28 March 1976, and returned there on 21 April 1978, completing a circumnavigation of 31,166 nautical miles (57,719 km) in 401 days.

7. Marek Kamiński (b. 1964)

With an HPI of 35.99, Marek Kamiński is the 7th most famous Polish Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Marek Kamiński (born 24 March 1964 in Gdańsk) is a Polish innovator, philosopher and an explorer. He is claimed to have reached both the North and the South Pole in one year without outside assistance (the North Pole on 23 May 1995; the South Pole on 27 December 1995).