The Swiss Traveler

I wanted to post my main story for my family timeline in Green's history class.  I think it's an interesting story just to red, but if you have any suggestions, please make them!  =)

 

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt was a very famous Swiss explorer who lived from 1784-1817.  Although this his lifetime was marginal, his accomplishments were colossal.  Rumors run through my Burkhalter (spelled many different ways, including Burckhardt) lineage that Johann was the brother of our earliest known ancestor on the Burckhardt side, Christen Burckhardt.  This association would make him my great-great-great-great-great-uncle.  My link to such a consummate person has only pushed my passion for history farther.  His undertakings included discovering the ancient Jordanian city of Petra, being the first European to see the temples at Abu Simbel, and was the only non-Muslim to openly visit the Islamic religious center, Mecca.

 

My distant uncle studied in Germany and later at Cambridge before being sent to Syria as a prerequisite before crossing the Sahara and exploring along the Niger River – the goal of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa.  In Syria he took on a Middle Eastern name and learned to speak fluent Arabic as well as becoming an expert in Islamic doctrine.  For two and a half years he lived there, and when the time came for him to move down to West Africa, he began his journey south to Cairo, Egypt before the pilgrimage via the desert.  On the trip he came across a narrow ravine and the Khaznet Firaoun (Pharaoh’s Treasure) – the temple-tomb leading to the remains of Petra known from Biblical and Roman accounts, but the location was lost to modern Europeans.

 

When he finally arrived at his Egyptian destination he found no prospect of a caravan to cross the Sahara.  Looking at the bright side of things, he decided to spend his time traveling up the Nile rather than hang around in the metropolis.  On his trip he became the first the first European to view the Temple to Hathor and the Great Temple at Abu Simbel, just south of Aswan.  The Great Temple is considered the crowning monument of Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, one of the most successful pharaohs of Egypt.  When he arrived the four gigantic statues of the Egyptian ruler took were awe-inspiring.  Only an explorer could understand the feeling of such an indescribable discovery.

 

He returned to Cairo and recognized that, yet again, no caravan was ready.  Since he was subjected to further delay, he decided to make a pilgrimage to the Islamic city of Mecca.  The Viceroy of Egypt who knew Uncle Johann by reputation arranged for him be declared a Muslim.  On this pretense he became the first, and perhaps only, non-Muslim to visit Mecca openly.

 

Johann Burckhardt returned to Cairo where he suffered a series of illnesses that left him weakened.  He eventually died in the city of dysentery.  He never did get to cross the Sahara.  He never did explore along the Niger.  He never did visit West Africa.  He did, however, make discoveries that would his age, and many more ages to come, in awe.  He was my uncle.

Tags: Life, History, Genealogy, School