Antarctic Plateau

The polar plateau is a large area in Ostantarktika, which has a diameter of about a thousand kilometers and includes the South Pole. The average height is about 3000 meters.

The northern slopes of the plateau in Victoria Land were first entered in 1903 by a reconnaissance team of Discovery expedition under Robert Falcon Scott after crossing the Transantarctic Mountains over the Ferrar Glacier. When trying to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole, reached during the Nimrod expedition to the southern group of Ernest Shackleton in January 1909 after a climb on the Beardmore Glacier for the first time on the central plateau.

The elevation associated with the southern latitude of the place make sure that you can find the lowest temperatures of the earth here. The almost always blowing southerly winds increase the inhospitality yet - so there are virtually no life, not even on bacterial level.

Roald Amundsen named the whole plateau after King Haakon VII of Norway, when he reached the South Pole in 1911 as the first man. The name, however, was hardly used by non- Norwegians. Back in 1909 during the Nimrod expedition had its director Ernest Shackleton during his failed attempt to reach the South Pole, called the plateau after King Edward VII of Great Britain.