Carsten Niebuhr

Carsten Niebuhr (born March 17, 1733, Lüdingworth, Hanover [Germany]—died April 26, 1815, Meldorf, Holstein) was a German traveler who was the sole survivor of the first scientific expedition to Arabia and the compiler of its results.

He learned surveying and in 1760 was invited to join the Arabian expedition being sent out by Frederick V of Denmark. The party visited the Nile, Mount Sinai, Suez, and Jidda, the port of Mecca, and then went overland to Mocha (al-Mukhā) in southwestern Arabia. The death of the expedition’s philologist (May 1763) was followed by that of the naturalist in July. The remaining party members visited Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, and returned to Mocha. The group then sailed for Bombay, where the artist and the surgeon of the expedition died, leaving Niebuhr alone. He stayed 14 months in India and then turned homeward by way of Muscat (in southeastern Arabia), Persia, Mesopotamia, Cyprus, and Asia Minor, reaching Copenhagen in November 1767. He wrote Beschreibung von Arabien (1772; “Description of Arabia”) and Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Ländern (1774; Travels Through Arabia).