(1371 – 1433)
Zheng He, formerly romanized as Cheng Ho, was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China’s early Ming dynasty who helped extend the maritime and commercial influence of China throughout the regions bordering the Indian Ocean. He commanded seven naval expeditions almost a century before the Portuguese reached India by sailing around the southern tip of Africa. He is also rumored to have reached the North American continent approximately 70 years before Christopher Columbus, based on a recently discovered map dating back to 1418 depicting the Americas and even includes names of specific Peruvian towns. However, the authenticity of the map, and the claim that China reached America before Columbus, remain under investigation due to conflicting findings, such as the dual-hemisphere design, which is a cartographic tradition exclusively European, and the Himalayas are marked as the highest mountains in the world, a fact not known until the 19th century. Should forensic science prove the Chinese claims to be false, Zheng He remains one of history’s greatest explorers worthy of mentioning with the nautical masters of the New World.
