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[[File:Georg von Rosen Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld 1886.jpg|thumb|Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld during his exploration of arctic regions by Georg von Rosen, 1886.]]
[[File:Georg von Rosen Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld 1886.jpg|thumb|Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld during his exploration of arctic regions by Georg von Rosen, 1886.]]
It lies under the waters of the [[Arctic Ocean]] at a point more or less equidistant between the northern coasts of [[Scandinavia]], [[Russia]], [[Alaska]], [[Canada]] and [[Greenland]]. The sea there is usually ice-bound but not always. (The ice was thin enough in August 1958 for the US Submarine ''"Skate"'' to surface there.) It is. as one would think, cold, it is usually still and, depending on the season, has 24 hours a day sunlight (midsummer) or darkness (midwinter.) (The Arctic Circle, at about 66 degrees N is the latitude above which this occurs.)
The '''North Pole''' is the northernmost place on [[Earth]]. It is the the northern end of the north-south axis of the Earth where every direction is south and is the northern point where all longitudinal meridians begin. Its latitude is 90 degrees north. It is the opposite of the [[South Pole]].
It lies under the waters of the [[Arctic Ocean]] at a point more or less equidistant between the northern coasts of [[Scandinavia]], [[Russia]], [[Alaska]], [[Canada]] and [[Greenland]]. The sea there is usually ice-bound but not always. (The ice was thin enough in August 1958 for the US submarine ''"Skate"'' to surface there.) It is. as one would think, cold, it is usually still and, depending on the season, has 24 hours a day sunlight (midsummer) or darkness (midwinter.) (The Arctic Circle, at about 66 degrees N is the latitude above which this occurs.)
The first attempts by Europeans to get there were by [[English]] navigator/traders sponsored by the Muscovy Company in 1607, 1610 and 1611. They were all frustrated by the ice but opened up the area for whaling. The British then left it to the Russians (who reached about 80 degrees north) until the [[Royal Navy]] became interested and mounted a series of expeditions during the late 1700s and into the nineteenth century. The Americans tried in 1860 and in the 1870s. All these later attempts were sparked by the myth of an area of “open water” around the Pole. Only in the 1870s was this myth exploded. Lives were lost in these attempts.
The first attempts by Europeans to get there were by [[English]] navigator/traders sponsored by the Muscovy Company in 1607, 1610 and 1611. They were all frustrated by the ice but opened up the area for whaling. The British then left it to the Russians (who reached about 80 degrees north) until the [[Royal Navy]] became interested and mounted a series of expeditions during the late 1700s and into the nineteenth century. The Americans tried in 1860 and in the 1870s. All these later attempts were sparked by the myth of an area of “open water” around the Pole. Only in the 1870s was this myth exploded. Lives were lost in these attempts.