Desert exploration

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Desert exploration is the deliberate and scientific exploration of deserts, the arid regions of the earth. It is only incidentally concerned with the culture and livelihood of native desert dwellers.

The nature of deserts ensures that the story of their exploration is filled with tragedy. Many expedition members met their deaths due to the harsh conditions. Unlike earlier naval exploration and later space exploration, there was little hope of financial reward, and desert expeditions were generally undertaken for scientific purposes, in search of earlier explorers who had vanished, or for the challenge alone.

The following sections list deserts around the world, and their explorers. Expeditions are listed by their leaders; details of other expedition members may be found via the links.

1 Africa
2 Asia
3 Australia
4 North America

[edit] Africa

Kalahari Desert
Sahara Desert
- Heinrich Barth - crossed the Sahara during his travels in Africa and the Middle East during 1845-1847.
- James Richardson - explored the Sahara and Sudan he died in the notorious Hammada (a stony desert) in the Western Sahara.
- Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs - German geographer. First person the cross Africa north to south. Named a place Regenfeld (Rainfield) near Dakhla Oasis in southern Egypt after experiencing a rare occurrence of desert rain.
- Karl Alfred von Zittel German palaeontologist who accompanied Rohlfs.
- Henri Duveyrier - He undertook a number of fossil-hunting explorations in the Sahara.
- Albert-Félix de Lapparent - Explorer of the northern and western parts of the Sahara.
- Victor Loche - first identified the Sand Cat (Felis margarita) while exploring the North Sahara.
- Joseph Ritchie - sent to find the course of the River Niger and the location of Timbuktu. He died in Murzuk]].
- Helen Thayer - 20th Century walker and explorer.