Wanderlust

By Google Arts & Culture

Portrait of Alexander von Humboldt (1806) by Friedrich Georg WeitschAlte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

The ancient call of the wild
We are a nomadic species. The yearning we feel to see what’s just over the horizon, to explore the unexplored, springs from somewhere deep inside. Our ancestors felt it too, and they left us maps, signposts and stories so that we might follow them.

To travel is to discover more than just the world. It is to discover more about what it means to be human. And then make people jealous about it on social media.

Portrait of Alexander von Humboldt at Alte Nationalgalerie

What does it take to be one of the most interesting men in the world? Wanderlust, certainly. A curious mind. An insatiable desire to learn new skills… Alexander von Humboldt had all these qualities and more, which may explain why you’ll almost certainly have heard his name, even if you’ve never heard of him: Alexander von Humboldt has more things named after him than any other person in history, from species of penguins, to waterfalls, to craters on the moon.

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Painting "Lieutenant-General Minutoli in the Siwah Oasis" with monogram L. F. (Louis Faur) (c. 1823) by Louis FaureNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Baron von Minutoli in the Siwa Oasis at Neues Museum

Partying like it’s 1821 at Siwa Oasis. “We’re calling ourselves ‘Egyptologists’! Hoping it’ll catch on!” – Baron von Minutoli kick-starting German’s Egyptology wanderlust with his landmark expedition to Ancient Egypt. He shipped home 117 crates of souvenirs (altars, statues, manuscripts and mummies) from all over the country and, even though 97 of them were lost in a wreck in the North Sea, the surviving crates were the seed of Berlin’s Egyptian Museum.

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