An English explorer of Africa, John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) solved the riddle of the Nile River by discovering its source during the course of an epic journey to and through the Great Lakes region of eastern Africa. Ever since the time of Herodotus,...

John Hanning Speke's African travel writing appeared just prior to the great scramble for Africa, when European expeditions, financed privately or by political and scientific institutions, began systematically probing and mapping the interior of a...

1827-1864 English explorer who discovered the source of the Nile, the longest river in Africa. Speke served in the army in India before setting out with Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) to explore the African interior. Together they discovered Lake...

John Hanning Speke Born May 4, 1827, Ilminster, Somerset, England Died September 16, 1864, Bath, England John Hanning Speke was at the center of one of the biggest geographical controversies of the nineteenth century—the search for the source of...

John Hanning Speke (May 4 1827 – September 15 1864) was an officer in the British Indian army, who made three voyages of exploration to Africa. In 1844 he joined the British Indian Army where he served in the Sikh War under Sir Colin Campbell. He...

Born in Devon in 1827, John Hanning Speke was commissioned into the British Indian Army in 1844, going on to travel in the Himalaya. However, he is best known for his subsequent African voyages and discovery of the source of the River Nile....

Fans of political history and adventure are in for a treat as publishing house John Murray reissues its Peter Hopkirk series. A former journalist and officer in the King's African Rifles, Hopkirk has written six books concerning political intrigue and exploration in Central...