Video Length: 60 mins.

The call of the Antarctic has driven explorers from nations great and small to find the core of this continent – The South Pole!

Using present day photography, historical footage and stills Questar brings you this exceptional visual history of Antarctica’s present and past.

See Antarctica’s South Pole, the coastal islands, killer whales, sea rookeries, penguins, ice three miles deep, and the skies of Aurora Australia.

As far back as ancient Greece, scholars knew there was an Antarctica. It was known as Terra Incognita – “the unknown land.” For almost 2000 years, the possibility of an undiscovered southern continent intrigued explorers. British Captain James Cook, in July, 1775, after a three year voyage to Antarctica and failing to reach the South Pole wrote “ice extends to the pole or perhaps to some land to which it has been fixed since creation.”

The challenge to reach the South Pole persisted throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Shortly after the 20th century began, two men, Scott of England and Amundsen of Norway, engaged in a race to the South Pole that is unparalled in history. Watched by the world, this race ended in death for the loser. But, because of that event, the world became aware of Antarctica. It is larger than the U.S. and Central America put together; it is as dry as the Sahara desert, and yet it holds 90% of the world’s fresh water. The fascinating history of this desolate continent is captured in this video, which reveals the enormous contrasts of the landscape, and wildlife that survives in seemingly uninhabitable temperatures.