Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Central Asia yurt night stars
Uzbekistan • 15 days, 14 nights
Central Asia Road Trip: Backroads & Bazaars
from
A view of Brașov’s Old Town.
Romania • 12 days, 11 nights
Legends of Romania: Castles, Ruins & Culinary Delights
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
Grotte de Glace
Sinquerim Beach Bastion
Port Tobacco Schoolhouse
Barracks / munitions storage.
Vloethemveld
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
Names on the bartop.
The Dive
Cacio e pepe lasagna combines two classics.
C'è Pasta... E Pasta!
Spaghetto taratatà is named for the sound of rattling sabers.
Giano Restaurant
The gnocchi here get blanketed in a sugo with braised oxtail.
Cesare al Pellegrino
Romans insist you should feel the cracked peppercorns and cheese grains on your tongue.
Flavio al Velavevodetto
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Green-Wood Cemetery, overlooking New York Harbor.
Where Our Team Looked for Joy During Pandemic Lockdowns
The 2,653-mile-long Pacific Crest Trail spans the entire West Coast from Canada to Mexico.
Meet the Volunteers Who Keep Thru-Hikers Moving
The Haskell Free Library and Opera House building on the U.S.-Canadian border.
Could New Border Restrictions Literally Tear the Haskell Free Library Apart?
A woman peering into the cave of Sarah Bishop c. 1900.
The Curious History of New England’s Hermit Tourism

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Antarctica The Snow Tomb of Captain Robert Falcon Scott

The Snow Tomb of Captain Robert Falcon Scott

The bodies of some early polar pioneers are still buried beneath the harsh snows of the Antarctic.

Antarctica

Added By
Edmund Richardson
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
The grave of Scott, Wilson and Bowers   Wikimedia
Captain Robert Falcon Scott   Wikimedia
The Grave of the Southern Party.   Herbert Ponting/Public Domain
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

While Sir Ernest Shackleton is often heralded as the hero of polar exploration, he had many contemporaries, among them British naval captain Robert Falcon Scott, who along with four of his men is still buried under the snows of the Antarctic. 

In November 1912, on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, the surviving members of Scott's Terra Nova expedition were searching for their leader. Scott and his party had vanished into the snows the previous year - never returning from their quest for the South Pole. On November 12th, one of the group, physicist Charles Wright, saw "a small object projecting above the surface" of the snow. It was part of a tent. They had discovered the final resting place of Scott and two of his men, Henry "Birdie" Bowers and Edward Wilson. Scott lay between them, his diary recording their final days: "It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more," the last entry ran, "For God’s sake look after our people." In his final starved, frostbitten days, Scott worried about the financial burden on the families he and his men had left behind.

Edgar "Taff" Evans and Lawrence "Titus" Oates had died earlier on the return journey from the Pole, where the party of five had found to their dismay that they had been bested by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Discouraged, they trudged back toward the coast, Evans dying on the descent of the Beardmore Glacier and Oates freezing to death on the Ross Ice Shelf. Oates, wounded and thus concerned he was a burden to the others, limped out of the tent into a blizzard on March 17th and was never seen again. But his noble suicide would not save Scott, Wilson, and Bowers, who by March 29th were all dead in the tent. They had died just 11 miles short of a food depot, but 11 miles in an Antarctic blizzard with -60˚ Celsius temperatures was close to an eternity.

Why it was that Scott and his men perished has been debated ever since the discovery of their bodies, with most scholars pinning at least part of the blame on Scott’s decision-making, while others point to a series of random misfortunes, coupled with atrocious March weather. Only one other expedition had experienced similarly impossible conditions, a three-man team of Wilson, Bowers and Apsley Cherry-Garrard setting off in the Antarctic winter on a quest for Emperor penguin eggs. The three were extraordinarily lucky to have survived; Cherry-Garrard recalled his teeth chattering so violently that they shattered.

The bodies of Scott and his men were not brought back to Britain. Instead, wrote Cherry-Garrard, who had been part of the search party, "We never moved them. We took the bamboos of the tent away and the tent itself covered them. Over them we built the cairn." This cairn of snow, topped with a solitary cross, was all that marked the remote spot in the Antarctic emptiness which has not been seen for over 100 years. The grave site was quickly buried in drifting snow, while the tent and bodies have been migrating downward into the ice under the weight of accumulating snow and seaward with the ice shelf toward the Ross Sea. A more permanent monument to Scott and his men was erected on Observation Hill near McMurdo Station, but given time, it is likely that, encased deep within an iceberg, the bodies of Scott, Bowers, and Wilson will slowly drift away out to sea.

Related Tags

Tombs Gravestones Exploration Polar Week Graves

Community Contributors

Added By

emdrichardson

Edited By

michelle, Martin, jasoncanthony, Molly McBride Jacobson

  • michelle
  • Martin
  • jasoncanthony
  • Molly McBride Jacobson

Published

January 27, 2015

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Falcon_Scott
  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/scott_of_antarctic.shtml
The Snow Tomb of Captain Robert Falcon Scott
Antarctica
-81.5, -175.0

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Antarctica

Antarctica

Antarctica

Places 40
Stories 65

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Antarctica

Antarctica

Antarctica

Places 40
Stories 65

Related Stories and Lists

Remembering the 'Ice Widows' of a Doomed Antarctic Expedition

exploration

By Sarah Durn

History Tour: Adventures at the Poles

List

By Jessica Leigh Hester

Why Antarctica's Prehistoric Forests Might Foreshadow Its Future

forests

By Sarah Laskow

27 Headstones That Defied Expectations

cemeteries

By Molly McBride Jacobson

Essential Guide to Monuments of Epic Failure

nazis

By Edmund Richardson

Related Places

  • The tombstone on the wall

    Panaji, India

    Dona Paula's Tombstone

    Legends of adultery, love affairs, and charity swirl around this mysterious 17th-century Portuguese woman.

  • Two stone tombs on a raised stone platform

    New Delhi, India

    Razia Sultan Tomb

    Delhi's only female ruler is buried in this neglected, forgotten tomb.

  • The altar inside the Church of San Domenico Maggiore.

    Naples, Italy

    Tomb of the First Bishop of New York

    Richard Luke Concanen never set foot on American soil.

  • A beautiful tomb.

    Aguascalientes, Mexico

    Los Ángeles and La Cruz Graveyards

    Legends, sculptures, and unique tombs can be seen lurking in these connected cemeteries.

  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

    Grave of Thomas Wiltberger Evans

    The corporeal remains of Napoleon III's dentist rest under this 15-story obelisk.

  • An etching of the expedition

    Edinburgh, Scotland

    Grave of Lieutenant John Irving

    This grave marks one of few bodies retrieved from the disastrous Franklin Arctic expedition.

  • Grave of Anders Celsius.

    Uppsala, Sweden

    Tomb of Anders Celsius

    A small church in Uppsala hides the grave of a renowned 18th-century astronomer.

  • Edinburgh, Scotland

    John Livingston's Tomb

    Nestled among the living residents is the final resting place of an apothecary plague victim.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.