8vo. Volume I: xxvi, 388 pages., [1], small stamp on title page / Volume II: Folio Atlas: 8 engraved plates of which one is folding, 5 maps, contemporary half-calf with marbled boards, slightly rubbed, title gilt, red labels on spine, occasional spotting in atlas, otherwise set in very good condition, Friedrich Williams, Frankfurt & Main, first edition, 1829.

Synopsis

Ruppell , German naturalist and explorer, was the first European to go into the legendary country of Kordofan following its conquest by Mohammed Ali.
He set off on his first expedition in 1821, accompanied by surgeon Michael Hey as his assistant. They travelled through the Sinai desert, and in 1822 were the first European explorers to reach the Gulf of Aqaba. They then proceeded to Alexandria via Mount Sinai. In 1823 they travelled up the Nile to Nubia, collecting specimens in the area south of Ambukol, returning to Cairo in July 1825. A planned journey through Ethiopia only reached as far as Massawa, where the party suffered ill health.
In the introduction, Ruppell explains that he did not set out to give a personalized and romanticised version of his travels, but to give a very factual and scientific account of Egypt, Sudan, the Jordanian desert, the Hijaz, Yemen and Oman. He also surveyed the Arabian coast from Mocha to Jeddah.
Bibliographic references: Embacher 255; Gay, 117; Paulitschke, 87; Henze IV, 706; Hilmy II, 200