1875 Jordan / Petermann Map of the Rohlfs Expedition, Egyptian and Libyan Deserts

A fascinating map of the deserts of western Egypt and eastern Libya, tracing the routes of the 1873 - 1874 Rohlfs Expedition, drawn by the expedition's surveyor Wilhelm Jordan. It is one of the few, and perhaps the first, early maps to detail the desert oases of western Egpyt. Today, the Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla-Kharga Route is a possible if rugged circuit for the adventurous traveler.

A Closer Look

The map displays a portion of southern Egypt and southeastern Libya, between the Nile (shaded green at right) and the Kufra Oases (the string of oases in the Libyan Desert at left here). Areas of elevation, routes through the desert, settlements, oases, sand dunes, areas of cultivation, and other features are labeled throughout. The progress of the various routes of the expedition is traced with dates, as explained in the legend at right. The routes of earlier European explorers are also recorded. Information is provided on local landmarks, flora, and other markers.

Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs and the Exploration of North Africa

Over his career, Rohlfs played a major role in the European exploration of North Africa and the Sahara Desert. Trained as a physician, Rohlfs served as a military doctor, eventually joining the French Foreign Legion. He quickly gained various awards, including being made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and learned Arabic during his travels with the Legion. In 1861, he moved to Morocco and began exploring desert oases, being severely injured and almost killed on one such foray. The experience and his long recovery did not deter Rohlfs, who in 1864 crossed the Atlas Mountains to Tuat, providing the first map and description of the region to Europeans.

Between 1865 and 1867, Rohlfs disguised himself as an Arab and crossed the Sahara and much of the continent, from Tripoli to Lake Chad and on to Lagos. He was feted on his return to Europe by the leading geographers of the day, including receiving the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. The following years saw additional travels, including the 1873 - 1874 expedition seen here.

The 1873 - 1874 Expedition

Rohlfs' 1873 - 1874 expedition was a much larger and more public undertaking that his previous explorations. With the financial support of Isma'il Pasha (r. 1863 - 1879), the khedive of Egypt, Rohlfs was accompanied by dozens of men and camels carrying some 500 metal water canisters to explore the oases of western Egypt and Libya. Convening in Alexandria in late November 1873, the team set out from the Nile at Asyut (Siut here) towards the Western Desert, looking for a direct route to the Kufra Oases. The party ran into various troubles, including massive, insurmountable sand dunes. In the end, the expedition had to deviate from the planned route to reach Siwa (Siuah), unable to explore or traverse the sand dunes (the area labeled 'grenze des sanders unbekannt'), known in English as the Great Sand Sea. Nevertheless, in scientific terms, Rohlfs' 1873 - 1874 expedition was significant and successful.

The group included numerous well-known German scientists, including geologist Karl Alfred von Zittel (1839 - 1904), botanist Paul Ascherson (1834 - 1913), and surveyor Wilhelm Jordan (see biography below), who, as can be seen, split off from the main group at various points. One focus of the expedition was the exploration of the Dakhla Oasis and its numerous archaeological sites, as well as the flora and fauna of the oasis and the excavation and documentation of the Deir el-Hagar temple. Another special feature was the engagement of the photographer Philipp Remelé (1844 - 1883). Remelé took over 150 photographs of the oasis and its inhabitants and was commissioned by Rohlfs to excavate the temple of Deir el-Hagar. In addition to Rohls, who wrote a comprehensive account of the expedition and a shorter, more accessible synopsis (in collaboration with his colleagues), Zittel, Ascherson, Jordan, and Remelé published works in the following years based on their observations during the expedition, winning acclaim in their respective fields.

Publication History and Census

This map was originally drawn by Wilhelm Jordan, surveyor of the Rohlfs Expedition, and was engraved by Carl Hellfarth for publication in the 1875 edition of Petermann's geographische Mitteilungen, accompanying an article written by Jordan discussing the expedition. The map is independently cataloged among the holdings of eight institutions in the OCLC, though outside of Europe only at the Library of Congress and University of Chicago, while the entire 1875 volume of Petermann's geographische Mitteilungen is more widely distributed.