Editing Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (section)

==Discoveries and death==
[[File:The Treasury, Petra, Jordan8.jpg|thumb|The treasury building at [[Petra]]]]

On the road to Cairo along the more dangerous inland route to [[Aqaba]], Burckhardt encountered rumours of ancient ruins in a narrow valley near the supposed biblical [[Tomb of Aaron (Jordan)|tomb of Aaron]], the brother of [[Moses]]. This region was the former Roman province of [[Arabia Petraea]] leading him to believe these were the ruins he had heard about in Malta. Telling his guide that he wished to sacrifice a goat at the tomb, he was led through the narrow valley where on 22 August 1812, he became the first modern European to lay eyes on the ancient Nabataean city of Petra:<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url = https://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196705/shaikh.burckhardt.explorer.htm|title = Shaikh Burckhardt: Explorer|date = October 1967|access-date = 7 December 2015|website = Saudi AramcoWorld|last = Christie|first = Trevor|archive-date = 10 December 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151210202750/https://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196705/shaikh.burckhardt.explorer.htm|url-status = dead}}</ref>

{{blockquote | I was particularly desirous of visiting Wady Mousa, of the antiquities of which I had heard the country people speak in terms of great admiration... I hired a guide at Eldjy, to conduct me to [[Tomb of Aaron (Jordan)|Haroun's tomb]]... I was without protection in the midst of a desert where no traveller had ever before been seen… Future travellers may visit the spot under the protection of an armed force; the inhabitants will become more accustomed to the researches of strangers; and the antiquities of Wady Mousa will then be found to rank amongst the most curious remains of ancient art…

An excavated mausoleum came in view, the situation and beauty of which are calculated to make an extraordinary impression upon the traveller, after having traversed for nearly half an hour such a gloomy and almost subterraneous passage as I have described. The natives call this monument Kaszr Faraoun, or Pharaoh's castle; and pretend that it was the residence of a prince. But it was rather the sepulchre of a prince, and great must have been the opulence of a city, which could dedicate such monuments to the memory of its rulers...

In comparing the testimonies of the authors cited in [[Adriaan Reland|Reland]]'s Palastina, it appears very probable that the ruins in Wady Mousa are those of the ancient Petra, and it is remarkable that Eusebius says the tomb of Aaron was shewn near Petra. Of this at least I am persuaded, from all the information I procured, that there is no other ruin between the extremities of the Dead sea and Red sea, of sufficient importance to answer to that city. Whether or not I have discovered the remains of the capital of Arabia Petraea, I leave to the decision of Greek scholars.
| Johann Burckhardt, ''Travels in Syria and the Holy Land'', p.418–431}}

He could not remain long at the ruins or take detailed notes due to his fears of being unmasked as a treasure-seeking infidel. Seeing no evidence of the name of the ruins, he could only speculate that they were in fact the ruins of Petra which he had been informed about on his journey to Syria.<ref name=":2" /> He continued his travels and after crossing the southern deserts of Transjordan and the [[Sinai Peninsula]], he arrived at Cairo on 4 September 1812.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Burckhardt's map of Syria and Holy Land, showing Palestine and Egypt and the Ottoman Pashaliks.jpg|thumb|left|Burckhardt's map of Syria and Holy Land, showing Palestine and Egypt and the Ottoman Pashaliks]]
After spending four months in Cairo with no westbound caravans across the Sahara available, Burckhardt decided to journey up the Nile River to Upper Egypt and [[Nubia]]. He justified this to his employer with the argument that the information he would collect on African cultures would help him in his planned journey to west Africa. In January 1813, he departed Cairo travelling up the Nile river over land via donkey. He planned to reach [[Dongola]] in what is now modern-day [[Sudan]].<ref name=":1" /> He was eventually blocked by hostile people less than 160&nbsp;km from his goal near the third cataract of the Nile river. Journeying north, he came across the sand-choked ruins of the [[Temple of Ramesses II|Great Temple of Ramesses II]] at [[Abu Simbel]] in March 1813.<ref name=":0" /> After considerable effort, he was unable to excavate the entrance to the temple. He later told his friend [[Giovanni Battista Belzoni|Giovanni Belzoni]] about the ruins and it was he who later returned in 1817 to excavate the temple. Burckhardt continued north to [[Esmé]]. He later made an additional trip to Nubia travelling as far as [[Shendi]] near the [[Meroë|Pyramids of Meroë]].<ref name=":0" /> From here his journey took him to the [[Red Sea]], where he resolved to make the pilgrimage to [[Mecca]] as this would enhance his credentials as a Muslim on his passage to [[Timbuktu]].<ref name=":0" />

Burckhardt wrote of his travels in Egypt and Nubia, where he witnessed [[Slavery in Africa|slave trading]]: "I frequently witnessed scenes of the most shameless indecency, which the traders, who were the principal actors, only laughed at. I may venture to state, that very few female slaves who have passed their tenth year, reach Egypt or Arabia in a state of virginity."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080809060546/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burckhardt/john_lewis/nubia/chapter2.html Travels in Nubia, by John Lewis Burckhardt]  (ebook).</ref>

After crossing the Red Sea, he entered [[Jeddah]] on 18 July 1814 and became sick with [[dysentery]] for the first time in his travels. Here he proved his credentials as a Muslim and was permitted to travel to Mecca. He spent several months in Mecca performing the various rituals associated with the Hajj which was unheard of for a European. He wrote of his detailed observations of the city and the deportment and culture of the local inhabitants.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.aramcoworld.com/issue/197406/the.lure.of.mecca.htm|title = The Lure of Mecca|date = December 1974|access-date = 7 December 2015|website = Saudi AramcoWorld|last = Lunde|first = Paul|archive-date = 9 September 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150909023921/http://www.aramcoworld.com/issue/197406/the.lure.of.mecca.htm|url-status = dead}}</ref> His journals were a valuable source of information for the African explorer [[Richard Francis Burton|Richard Burton]] who also later travelled to Mecca a few decades later. He later made a side trip to [[Medina]] where he again became sick with dysentery and spent three months recovering. Departing Arabia, he arrived in a state of great exhaustion in the Sinai peninsula and travelled overland to Cairo, arriving on 24 June 1815.<ref name=":0" />

Burckhardt witnessed the [[Second plague pandemic|plague epidemics]] that ravaged the [[Hejaz]] and Egypt between 1812 and 1816. He wrote: "In five or six days after my arrival [in Yanbu] the mortality increased; forty or fifty persons died in a day, which, in a population of five or six thousand, was a terrible mortality."<ref>[https://www.scribd.com/document/2356116/Travels-in-Arabia-comprehending-an-account-of-those-territories-in-Hedjaz-which-the-Mohammedans-regard-as-sacred-by-Burckhardt-John-Lewis-1784-1817 ''Travels in Arabia; comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans regard as sacred by Burckhardt, John Lewis, 1784-1817''] (1829). pp. 247–252.</ref>

Burckhardt spent the remaining two years of his life editing his journals and living modestly in Cairo while waiting and preparing for the caravan that would take him west across the Sahara to Timbuktu and the Niger river. He made a trip to [[Alexandria]] and another to [[Mount Sinai]] where he visited [[Saint Catherine's Monastery]] before returning to Cairo.<ref name=":0" /> In Cairo, he met and introduced [[Giovanni Battista Belzoni#Egyptian antiquities|The Great Belzoni]] to [[Henry Salt (Egyptologist)|Henry Salt]], the British consul to Egypt, who commissioned Belzoni to remove the colossal bust of [[Ramesses II]] from [[Thebes (Egypt)|Thebes]] to the [[British Museum]].  He was again stricken with dysentery and died in Cairo on 15 October 1817, never having made his intended journey to the Niger. He was buried as a Muslim, and the tombstone over his grave bears the name that he assumed on his travels in Arabia.<ref name=":1" />

He had from time to time carefully transmitted to England his journals and notes, and a copious series of letters, so very few details of his journeys have been lost. He bequeathed his collection of 800 volumes of oriental manuscripts to the library of Cambridge University.<ref>{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Burckhardt, John Lewis|volume=4|page=809}}</ref>