RUPPELL, (WILHELM PETER) EDUARD (SIMON)

born Nov. 20, 1794, Frankfurt am Main died Dec. 10, 1884, Frankfurt am Main German naturalist and explorer of northeastern Africa who is remembered as much for the zoological and ethnographical collections he brought back to Europe as for his explorations. Rppell first went to Africa in 1817 and ascended the Nile River to its first set of cataracts (at Aswan, Egypt). Returning to Germany he completed his scientific training and then began his first expedition (182227), crossing the Sudan from the Nubian Desert south to Kordofan in the central Sudan. On his second (183034), he crossed Ethiopia from east to west, by way of the ruins of Adwa, to Lake Tana, which he mapped for the first time. On his return he stayed at the then capital of Ethiopia, Gonder, where he put his collections in order and amassed an anthology of ancient Ethiopian manuscripts.