Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
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 woreMuslim 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 caravan across the Sahara to Timbuktu. His route took him through southern Jordan, where he rediscovered the ruins of Petra.
Petra was an ancient trading city of reddish stone, with houses and temples cut into the surrounding cliffs. It was settled by an Arabian people called the Nabataeans by 500 B.C., and conquered by the Romans in 106 A.D. Eventually other nearby cities took over Petra's economic role, and it became primarily a religious center. A Christian city around the year 300, it was controlled by the Muslims in the 600s, and taken by the Franks during the Crusades. It was abandoned by the thirteenth century, and fell into ruins. While biblical and Roman accounts of Petra kept its memory alive in the West, its location was forgotten until Burckhardt's 1812 visit.
When he arrived in Cairo, Burckhardt found no suitable caravan forming, so he decided to approach the interior of Africa by traveling up the Nile. South of Aswan, in the ancient Nubian region of southern Egypt, he became the first European to see the 3,000-year-old temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel.
The two temples of Abu Simbel were carved into the side of a sandstone cliff. The larger, dedicated to the chief gods of the cities Heliopolis, Memphis, and Thebes, has become famous for the four huge stone statues of a seated Ramses II on its facade. Each is over 65 feet (20 m) tall. The smaller temple is dedicated to Ramses's queen, Nefertari.
Next, Burckhardt planned a pilgrimage to the Arabian city of Mecca, the holiest site in Islam. Non-Muslims are not allowed into Mecca. However, he was assisted by the viceroy of Egypt, who knew of his reputation and was able to arrange for him to be admitted by having him declared a Muslim. As Burckhardt was probably the only non-Muslim ever to travel openly to Mecca, his published account is still notable for its unique point of view.
After his journey through Arabia, Burckhardt returned to Cairo. He died of dysentery before his 33rd birthday, still waiting to join a caravan to Timbuktu. His five travel journals were published posthumously: Travels in Nubia (1819), Travels in Syria and the Holy Land (1822), Travels in Arabia (1829), Notes on the Bedouin and Wahabys (1830), and Arabic Proverbs (1830).
This is the complete article, containing 521 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
