page_title: Erden Eruç
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Erden Eruç / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Mount Erciyes (Turkish: Erciyes Dağı) is a 3917 metres high volcano east of Cappadocia/Nevsehir province. This photo was taken from the summit of Aktepe Hill, roughly 50km away north-west of Erciyes. There is still snow in the mountain on this side, at the end of July
context_page_description: Erden Eruç is a Turkish-American adventurer who became the first person in history to complete an entirely solo and entirely human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth on 21 July 2012 in Bodega Bay, California, United States. The journey had started from Bodega Bay a little more than five years earlier on 10 July 2007. The modes of transport included a rowboat to cross the oceans, a sea kayak for shorelines, a bicycle on the roads and hiking on trails, along with canoes for a few river crossings. The route he followed was 66,299 km long, crossed the equator twice and all lines of longitude, and passed over twelve pairs of antipodal points, meeting all the requirements for a true circumnavigation of the globe. Guinness World Records has officially recognized Eruç for the First solo circumnavigation of the globe using human power on a journey that lasted 5 years 11 days 12 hours and 22 minutes, the current world record time for a solo human-powered circumnavigation.
context_section_description: Eruç was born in Nicosia, Cyprus on 14 July 1961 and raised in Turkey. He has been an avid outdoorsman from an early age. When he was 11, his father took him for a climbing trip to Mount Erciyes, an extinct stratovolcano in south central Turkey and the highest mountain in central Anatolia with a summit at 3,916 m (12,848 ft). During his higher education years, Eruç studied mechanical engineering at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul where he earned both a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science degree. In 1986, he moved to the United States where he continued his studies in engineering and business administration, earning a second Master of Science degree in Engineering Mechanics at Ohio State University and an MBA degree at George Mason University.
  When his schooling was complete, Eruç worked in various technical consulting projects in the U.S. for nine years, advancing into project management. At the age of 41 he left the corporate office world, allowing him all the time he needed to pursue a dream of far-flung outdoor adventures. His new occupation was educating and inspiring others, especially children, through the pursuit of entirely human-powered travels around the world.
  During his journey to Alaska to climb Mount McKinley in June 2003, Eruç married Nancy Board in a native Alaskan Haida-Tsimshian ceremony on a beach near Homer, Alaska, though the culture is foreign to both of them as Eruç is a Turkish Muslim while Board is an American Catholic. Board is also an outdoor enthusiast and the acting Vice President of the Around-n-Over nonprofit organization.
caption: Mount Erciyes in the Cappadocia region of Turkey
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