a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of romantic philosophy. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America, exploring and describing it for the first time from a modern scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. Between May and November 1829, he and his expedition traversed the wide expanse of the Russian empire across Siberia, from the Neva to the Yenesei, accomplishing in twenty-five weeks a distance of 9,614 miles (15,472 km).
