It was in 1735, that an expedition led by three Frenchmen set out to discover the true shape of the earth, using only measuring poles, maths and star sightings. It was an epic journey, during which they lost two of their team, one of whom was murdered by the Spanish. They climbed the Andes mountains to accurately measure a 200 mile long path, travelled through uncharted parts of the Amazon jungle at a time when it was still thought that dragons were real and managed to make two very important... See more >