List of Saharan explorers

Although human settlements around and in the oases of the Sahara have existed for millennia, a relatively small number of explorers have recording traversing the entire desert due to its inhospitable nature and vastness. According to Herodotus, the Nasamones, a nomadic Berber tribe living in what is now Libya, sent five sons of chieftains to explore the desert. ^[1] Below is a partial list of explorers whose travels across the Sahara are recorded and known in the present day.

Notable explorers

• Herodotus born c. 484 BC. Herodotus in his Histories mentions for example the Garamantes of Libya.
• Al Idrisi (1100–1166) born in Ceuta. Wrote a medieval geography The Book of Roger. Created a map of the world in 70 sections.
• Ibn Battuta (1304–1369) [1349-53]. Born at Tangier in 1304, Battuta was to travel the world including Jordan, Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Tanzania, Crimea, Balkans, Russia, Central Asia, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Assam, Bengal, Malaya, Indonesia, China, Spain and the West African states. Wrote The Travels of Ibn Battuta. ^[2]
• Leo Africanus (1485–1554) born in Granada and died in Tunis. Educated in Fez, he travelled widely in Africa. Has a wonderful description of Timbuktu. Wrote A Geographical Historie of Africa containing much information on things like Timbuktu.
• Major Daniel Houghton (1740–1791) [1790-91]. He was commissioned by The African Association to find Timbuktu. He travelled up the Gambia across the Senegal and disappeared around Simbing.
• Mungo Park (1771–1806) [1795-96]. A Scot, commissioned by the African Association to explore the River Niger. Set out from the River Gambia and got to the River Niger. Imprisoned and escaped.
• Friedrich Hornemann (1772–1801) [1798-1800]. From Tripoli to Murzuk in 1799. Then disguised as a Muslim, he travelled with a caravan from Cairo to Siwa and Murzuk then down to Lake Chad and Kano.
• William George Browne
• Mungo Park (1771–1806) [1805-06]. Returned to the Niger. Attacked at Bussa and drowned whilst trying to escape.
• Joseph Ritchie (?-1818) & George Lyon (1795–1832) [1818]. Travelled from Tripoli to Murzuk.
• Major Alexander Gordon Laing (1793–1826) [1825-26]. Left Tripoli to explore the Niger. Crossed the Sahara and reached Timbuktu.
• René Caillié (1799–1838) [1827-28]. Left from Sierra Leone for Timbuktu. ^[3] After a long illness he became the first Frenchman to reach Timbuktu. Returned north via Morocco to Tangier.
• Dixon Denham (1786–1828), Clapperton (1788–1827) & Walter Oudney (1786–1828) {+ Adolf Overweg (1813–1852)} [1822-25]. From Tripoli they became the first Europeans to see Lake Chad. Joined a caravan for Kano, but were prevented from reaching the Niger.
• Hugh Clapperton (1788–1827) & Richard Lander (1804–1834) [1825-27]. Crossed the Niger at Bussa where Clapperton died.
• Richard Lander (1804–1834) & John Lander (1807–1839) [1832-34]. Richard and his brother John sailed down the river to discover the position of the river's mouth.
• John Davidson (1797–1836) [1836]. Attempted to get to Timbuktu but was murdered six weeks out from Morocco.
• James Richardson (?-1851) (with Barth & Overweg) [1845-51]. Travelled from Tripoli to Ghadames then Ghat. In 1850 led an expedition with Barth and Overweg from Tripoli to Lake Chad.
• Heinrich Barth (1821–1865) [1850-55]. With the British expedition above travelled from Tripoli to Lake Chad. Became the leader on the death of Richardson. Continued to Timbuktu and returned via Lake Chad to Tripoli. Published Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa 3 Vols. 1857.
• Eduard Vogel (1829–1856) [1853-54]. Was sent to Lake Chad to find Barth and Overweg. Continued alone to Zinder and was murdered whilst travelling on the Niger.
• Henri Duveyrier (1840–1892) [1859]. Travelled to El Goléa and then the Tassili. Published The Tuareg of the North.
• Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs (1831–1896) [1862-65, 1867-81]. Travelled in Morocco. Went from Tafilalt to Ghadames and Tripoli. Finally crossed to Lagos via Murzuk and Lake Chad.
• Alexine Tinne (1839–1869) [1869]. Travelled in Algeria and Tunisia. Set out to cross the Sahara but was murdered after leaving Murzuk.
• Gustav Nachtigal (1834–1885) [1870-74]. Travelled to Fezzan and explored the Tibesti. Crossed the Sahara to Lake Chad and continued to Darfur and Kordofan.
• Paul-Xavier Flatters (1832–1881) [1880-81]. Explored the Sahara north east of the Hoggar mountains, as a colonel in the French army. Expedition wiped out by Tuareg attack. Flatters killed.
• Pere Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916) [1881]. Widely travelled in Morocco. Became a monk living in a hermitage in the Hoggar mountains near Tamanrasset.
• Oskar Lenz (1848–1925) [1879-80, 1885-87]. Crossed from Morocco to Timbuktu then went west to the coast at the mouth of the Senegal. Then set out from the mouth of the Congo and arrived at Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyasa.
• Fernand Foureau (1850–1914) [1898-1900]. Led an expedition accompanied by a military escort led by Major Lamy (?-1900), through the Sahara to Sudan. Continued to Lake Chad.
• Angus Buchanan (1886-1954) [1919-1923]. Among other travels, led two expeditions into the Aïr_Mountains of Niger, collecting birds and mammals for the museum of his then patron, Walter_Rothschild,_2nd_Baron_Rothschild. On the second expedition (1922-3), he was initially accompanied by Francis_Rodd,_2nd_Baron_Rennell (1895-1978), then continued north across the Sahara to Touggourt in northern Algeria. On his return produced a popular film, 'Crossing the Great Sahara', shot by companion, T A Glover, and went on to record the 3500-mile voyage in 'Sahara' (Murray, 1926). ^[4] In the same year Francis Rodd's 'The People of the Veil' was published (Macmillan, 1926), becoming the definitive study of the Aïr Tuareg in English. ^[5]
• Ahmed Hassanein Egyptian courtier to King Fouad of Egypt who travelled with his camel caravan 2200 miles deep into the Libyan Desert. His 1923 expedition corrected Rohlfs map and added to scientific knowledge of the area and discovered the rock art of Oweinat. His famous article in the September 1924 issue of National Geographic Magazine featured many photos of the region's people and landscapes.
• Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein (1874–1932). Discovered the unknown Gilf_Kebir plateau in 1925 using Citroen half-track vehicles.
• Ralph Bagnold (1896–1990). Led some of the earliest motor explorations of the Libyan_Desert using Model-T Fords and other 2WD vehicles which helped establish many of the techniques of desert driving still used today.
• László Almásy (1895-1951). Hungarian-born contemporary of Bagnold's and friend of Kamal el Dine, who also explored the Libyan desert in the 1930s. Basis of the fictional titular character in The English Patient.
• Georges Marie Haardt (1884–1932) and Louis Audouin-Dubreuil (1887–1960) [1921-1922; 1924-1925]. The first crossing of the Sahara by motor car (Citroën half-tracked vehicles). Followed by a crossing of the continent ending in Madagascar.
• Théodore Monod (1902–2000). French naturalist, humanist and scholar who completed several solo camel expeditions in the Majabat al Koubra, where he discovered the Ma'adin Ijafen archaeological site.
• Michael Asher (1953-) and Mariantonietta Peru (1956-) The first crossing of the Sahara from west to east by camel and on foot, from Chinguetti, Mauritania to Abu Simbel, Egypt a total distance of 4500 miles. (1986–87)
• Bill Kennedy Shaw travelled on Bagnold's 1930s expeditions and later joined the Long Range Desert Group
• Charles-Jacques Poncet - Wikidata Q6594681

See also

• Desert exploration
• European exploration of Africa
• Trans-Saharan trade

References

1. "Explorers of Libya & the Sahara, Libya's discoverers and travellers in search of Timbuktu:". www.temehu.com. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
2. "The Great Explorers of Islam". World Bulletin (in Turkish). Retrieved 2022-06-13.
3. "Sahara - Study and exploration | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
4. "Sahara | Murray, 1926". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2025-05-03.
5. "The People of the Veil | Macmillan, 1926". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2025-05-03.

Further reading

• Eamonn Gearon. The Sahara: A Cultural History. Signal Books, UK, 2011. Oxford University Press, USA, 2011.
• David W. Ball Empires of Sand, Bantam Dell, 1999. The second half of this novel details the Flatters expedition of 1881 that ended in grisly fashion for the expedition and put an end to French plans for a trans-Saharan railway
• Michael Asher Impossible Journey - Two Against The Sahara Penguin Books, UK 1988
• Michael Asher Sands of Death - An Epic Tale of Massacre & Survival in the Sahara (on the Flatters expedition) Orion Books, 2007
• Chris Scott. Sahara Overland. Trailblazer Guides, UK, 2005.