| Nikolai Przhevalsky |
Article Index for Nikolai |
Website Links For Nikolai |
Information AboutNikolai Przhevalsky |
|
Nikolai Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky, also spelled '''Przewalski''' and '''Prjevalsky''' (; — ), was a Russian Geographer and Explorer in Central and Eastern Asia . Although he never reached his final goal, Lhasa in Tibet , he discovered the only extant species of wild Horse and added immensely to the store of European knowledge on Central Asia . Przhevalsky was born in Smolensk into a noble Belarus ian family, and studied there and at the military academy in St. Petersburg . In 1864 , he became a geography teacher at the military school in Warsaw . In 1867 , he was sent to Irkutsk in Siberia , where he began to explore the highlands on the banks of the river Ussuri , a tributary of the Amur . In the following years he made four journeys to central Asia :
The results of these expanded journeys opened a new era for geography as well as the Fauna and Flora of this up to then relatively unknown area. Among other things he discovered the wild population of Bactrian Camel s as well as the Przewalski's Horse named after him. Przhevalsky died of Typhus during his fifth journey at Karakol on the shore of lake Issyk-Kul . The Tsar immediately changed the name of the town to Przhevalsk. There are monuments to him there and in St. Petersburg. Przhevalsky's writings include ''Mongolia, the Tangut Country'' ( 1875 ) and ''From Kulja, Across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor'' (1879). Less than a year after his death, Nikolay Yadrintsev (who succeeded Przhevalsky at the head of his expedition) discovered the remains of Genghis Khan 's capital Karakorum . Przhevalsky's work was continued by Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov , his disciple and rumored lover. |
|
|