Professor Otto Lidenbrock's great adventure begins by chance when a scrap of paper drops out of an ancient book he has just bought. The coded inscription reveals the existence of a passageway leading to the Centre of the earth and that the entrance lies within the crater of an extinct volcano in Iceland. The professor travels to Iceland accompanied by his nephew, Axel, a keen young geologist. Together with a Swiss guide, they descend into the bowels of the earth where an amazing prehistoric world awaits them. Written in 1864, Journey to the Centre of the Earth established Verne as a pioneer of science fiction. This edition has been revised and improved for a modern readership.