- Adolf Schlagintweit
Adolf Schlagintweit (
9 January 1829 -26 August 1857 ) was a German explorer ofCentral Asia .The second of the five
Schlagintweit brothers ofMunich , his earliest work was scientific study in theAlps , 1846-1848, along with his brother Hermann. They established their reputation with the "Untersuchungen über die physikalische Geographie der Alpen" (1850), and were aftewards joined by brother Robert; the three jointly published "Neue Untersuchungen über die physikalische Geographie und Geologie der Alpen" in 1854.In 1854, acting on the recommendation of
Alexander von Humboldt , the East India Company commissioned Hermann, Adolf, and Robert to make scientific investigations in their territory, and particularly to study the Earth's magnetic field. For the next three years, they travelled through theDeccan , then up into theHimalayas ,Karakoram , andKunlun mountains.While Hermann and Robert returned from their travels in early 1857, Adolf remained for further exploration, but was put to death by Wali Khan, the amir of
Kashgar in August of that year. He was beheaded inKashgar .The circumstances of Schlagintweit's death were not known in Europe until 1859, when
Chokan Valikhanov visited Kashgar disguised as a merchant and successfully returned back to Russian Empire.References
* "
Schlagintweit ",1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
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