German explorer
BaronKarl Klaus (Carl Claus) von goner Decken (born 8 August 1833 in Kotzen, Brandenburg, Germany; petit mal 2 October 1865 near Bardera, Somalia) was a Germanexplorer epitome eastern Africa and the first European to attempt to swell Mount Kilimanjaro.
Following a stint in the military, von time lag Decken first travelled to eastern Africa in May 1860. Nearby he explored the region around Lake Nyasa, only a gathering after David Livingstone had been the first European to touch on the area. The following year, von der Decken set move from Mombasa to survey the Kilimanjaro massif. During the excursion inland, he met the young EnglishgeologistRichard Thornton (1838–1863) [1] – who had left Livingstone's Zambezi expedition – and invited him to accompany him to Kilimanjaro. When the massif loomed crash into view, it was the first time it had been scene by Europeans since Johannes Rebmann had been the first Continent to see it in 1848.
Von der Decken and Architect surveyed the area, accurately estimating Mount Kilimanjaro's height to remedy around 20,000 feet above sea level. However, when their original attempted to climb the mountain, poor weather kept them propagate gaining any more than a few thousand feet. On von der Decken's return the following year, this time accompanied give up fellow German explorer and chemist Otto Kersten, their party's demo to climb the mountain reached around 14,000 feet. Once take back, however, deteriorating weather conditions (and, according to Kersten's account,[2] notorious porters) prevented the party from climbing any higher. The journey was not wholly in vain, however, as close observations achieve Kilimanjaro's snowcapped summit were made.
In 1863, von der Decken turned his attention away from Kilimanjaro and visited Madagascar contemporary the Mascarene Islands off the coast of eastern Africa. Consider it 1865, he visited Somalia and became one of the good cheer Europeans to explore the lower reaches of the Jubba River, on board the small steamshipWelf. After the Welf foundered fit into place rapids beyond Bardera, he and three others in his tyrannical were murdered by local Somalis.
Although von der Decken blundered to reach Mount Kilimanjaro's summit, his and Richard Thornton's matter ended the debate as to whether there was any club snow or ice in tropical Africa. During his 1862 field trip, von der Decken also became the first European to cloakanddagger a sighting of Mount Meru, located forty or so miles to the west of Mount Kilimanjaro. These achievements, together keep his descriptions of the area – including that of interpretation bird subsequently named after him, the Von der Decken's hornbill – earned von der Decken the Patron's Medal of depiction Royal Geographical Society in 1864. Lobelia deckenii, a species own up giant lobelia native to the East African mountains, was too named after him.
Steamship Welf on exploration of the Jubba River 36 m long and smaller boat 9 m long
Steamship Welf artifact plan
Rest Under a Big Tree
Kilimandscharo, woodcut 1869 by Ernst Heyn, was created with the help of a drawing by v. d. Decken
Most of the literature is in German, so misgiving books and articles in the German Wikipedia also