The Discovery of Antarctica - Set of 2 stamps (Bellingshausen)
Hypothesised by Aristotle (384-322 BC), the discovery of "Terra Australis Incognita" was first mooted by Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), when his ships made the maiden voyage between the Atlantic and the Pacific in 1520.
In his judgement, the so-called "Tierra del Fuego", ("the southern limit of the Strait of Magellan"), with its forests and snow-capped mountains, was proof of its existence.
Dubbed "Terra Australis recenter inventa sed nondum plene cognita" ("The Southern Land newly discovered but not yet fully known"), the outlines of this presumed new continent henceforth became a permanent feature on maps, updated whenever new lands and islands were found, as if in anticipation of the imminent discovery that had long been foreseen.
However, it would take three more centuries for the expedition led by Russian explorer
Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (1778-1852) to first sight the shores of Antarctica on 28.01.1820, his name having been given to the adjacent sea through which he sailed.