<p>Explorers may have sighted Queen Maud Land’s coast in 1820, but its grand mountains, such as the Troll Castle [pictured] remained unknown until 1939, when Germans made aerial photos. Today the region’s virgin peaks and otherworldly terrain exert a magnetic pull on top climbers [such as the six-person expedition, covered in this gallery, who summitted never before scaled peaks].</p><p>—From "On the Edge of Antarctica: Queen Maud Land," February 1998, <em>National Geographic</em> magazine</p>

Troll Castle

Explorers may have sighted Queen Maud Land’s coast in 1820, but its grand mountains, such as the Troll Castle [pictured] remained unknown until 1939, when Germans made aerial photos. Today the region’s virgin peaks and otherworldly terrain exert a magnetic pull on top climbers [such as the six-person expedition, covered in this gallery, who summitted never before scaled peaks].

—From "On the Edge of Antarctica: Queen Maud Land," February 1998, National Geographic magazine

Photograph by Gordon Wiltsie

Queen Maud Land, Antarctica

See photos of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, in this photo gallery from National Geographic.

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