The Greek philosopher, Thales was born around 624BC, in a distinguished family. It is difficult to write about Thales, since none of his own writing survives. He was an engineer, scientist, mathematician, and philosopher; the first natural philosopher in the Milesian School. It is also thought that he was the teacher of Anaximander (611 BC - 545 BC). There are those who believe he wrote a book on navigation, but there is little evidence of such a tome. In fact, if he wrote any works at all, they did not even survive until the time of Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC). Whether the book ever existed, Thales probably did define the constellation Ursa Minor.

His life may be hard to discover, but come with us as we dig a little deeper into Thales of Miletus

• Perhaps we can learn more of the man with these Thales of Miletus Quotations.
• Another ancient Greek from shortly after Thales's time was Pythagoras of Samos.
• Dig deeper into history with our Astronomy & Space Timeline.