Amazing Unexplored Places on Earth

Despite the years and years of exploration and adventure by humans to reach the furthest and most inaccessible areas of the world, there are still incredible places that remain unexplored by the masses. Due to uninhabitable and hostile terrains—and even unwelcoming inhabitants—many parts of Earth are yet to be properly explored. From remote bays that haven’t seen visitors for thousands of years to icy deserts considered almost unlivable, let’s take a look at some of the most unexplored places on Earth.

North Sentinel Island, Bay of Bengal

North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal is arguably one of the most isolated places on Earth, both because of its remote location and its inaccessible population. The small island, around 60 square kilometres in size, lies off the north-west coast of Indonesia and remains largely unexplored.

Its inhabitants, the Sentinelese, have ensured their home has remained practically unvisited for nearly 60,000 years. Having always practised isolation, the Sentinelese tribe has kept the island solitary and untouched by outside contact through threatening and violent means. Many who have attempted to visit the island have been met with attacks, and few have ever set foot on its land. One missionary, John Allen Chau, was even killed by the tribe after travelling to the remote bay. Now often classed as one of the ‘most dangerous islands in the world’, India has made it illegal for citizens to visit North Sentinel Island or contact its people. It remains one of the most unexplored places on the planet.

Vale do Javari

The Amazon rainforest is vastly unexplored, with huge areas of land still untouched by modern civilisation. One remote area that is known but rarely seen is Vale do Javari, a territory in Brazil near the border of Peru.

Larger than Austria, Vale do Javari hosts the highest concentration of uncontacted indigenous tribes in one region. With access limited to air and waterways, it remains virtually unexplored, with little to no contact with the outside world. It was only in 2018 that drone images first captured a member of one of the area’s uncontacted tribes – proof of how little of this region has been seen by modern eyes.

Today, Brazil has made it illegal for non-indigenous individuals to visit Vale do Javari, making further exploration unlikely any time soon.

The Star Mountains of Papua New Guinea

The Star Mountains form an expansive range in Papua New Guinea, stretching around 100 kilometres and reaching a peak of 4,760 metres – yet only about ten people have ever reached the summit since its discovery in 1958.

For the most part, the mountains are almost completely unexplored and host a unique ecosystem where it’s estimated that around 100 of the 1,100 identified species are entirely new to science.

One reason the range remains uncharted is its harsh landscape, a trait shared by much of Papua New Guinea. The Star Mountains are also thought to be among the wettest and most humid places on Earth, adding to the challenges of exploration in this volatile region.

The Island of Surtsey, Located Off the Southern Coast of Iceland

Erupting in 1963, the island of Surtsey is a volcanic landmass off Iceland’s southern coast. Uninhabited and closed to the public, it is one of the most restricted places in the world. It is, however, under scientific observation; only researchers with permission are allowed to visit to study the island while protecting its fragile ecosystem.

Rising from the sea near the Westman Islands, Surtsey formed over nearly four years, from 1964 to 1967, through multiple volcanic eruptions. The island originally measured about one square mile but has since shrunk due to wave erosion. Declared a nature reserve in 1965, Surtsey hosts a growing variety of plants, birds, insects and marine life — and just one small hut where researchers stay during expeditions. Its ecosystem remains tightly protected from outside influence.

Sakha Republic, Russia

The Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia, is a vast and largely unexplored region of Siberia, where temperatures can plummet to -52°C. Spanning an enormous 3.084 million square kilometres, it has a population of only about one million people. Many parts of the region, including its mountains, rivers, lakes and plateaus, remain undiscovered even by locals.

Its extreme climate makes much of Yakutia nearly uninhabitable. Permafrost covers most of the territory, and its immense size and remote geography make exploration extremely difficult. This wilderness remains one of the most unexplored areas on Earth.

Gangkhar Puensum, Bhutan

Gangkhar Puensum, located in Bhutan, is the highest unclimbed mountain in the world and thus one of the most unexplored places on Earth. Due to extreme weather conditions, all attempts to summit the mountain failed in the 1980s, and mountaineering has since been banned altogether. No human has ever reached their highest peaks.

Because of such limited exploration, even the mountain’s exact geography is in dispute, with different countries placing parts of the range in different locations on their maps. This uncertainty highlights just how little we know about it.

And these are just the beginning. Other remarkable unexplored places on Earth include the Darién Gap, a roadless, swampy wilderness home to about 2,000 indigenous people in Central America, Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park (which literally means ‘where one cannot walk barefoot’), parts of the arid Namib Desert, and, of course, more than 80% of the world’s oceans.

In fact, even setting aside our vast undiscovered oceans, it’s estimated that over 65% of the Earth’s surface remains unexplored. Think of Greenland! Despite our long history of exploration and adventure, humanity still has much more to discover.

Whilst we might not travel to unexplored places on earth, our cadets do experience adventure. Find your nearest detachment and start your experience today!

Hero Image: Valentin Antonucci: https://www.pexels.com/photo/p…

North Sentinel Island image: Medici82, CC BY-SA 4.0 <;, via Wikimedia Commons

Island of Sertsey image: Howell Williams. Image source: NOAA