1784-1817

Swiss Explorer

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt was the first European in modern times to visit the ancient city of Petra in what is now Jordan, and the great temples of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II at Abu Simbel.

Burckhardt was born in 1784 in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1806 he went to England, where he studied at Cambridge University. He traveled to the Middle East in 1809 under the auspices of an English organization called the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa.

As did other great nineteenth-century explorers of the Middle East, Burckhardt adopted many local ways. He became fluent in Arabic, and learned in Islamic doctrine. He often wore Muslim garb, and even took an Arabic name, Ibrahim ibn Abdullah.

After he had spent almost three years in Aleppo, Syria, Burckhardt set off for Cairo with the goal of joining a...