Everyone knows who Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus were. But do they know that Christopher Columbus owned a copy of Polo’s book The Travels of Marco Polo, full of Columbus’s own handwritten notes that served as inspiration and research for his famous journey?

This amazing link and nine more are the basis for this highly original look at great explorers. By drawing a line from Polo and Magellan to Lewis and Clark and right down to Jacques Yves-Cousteau, readers will never think about history the same way again.