Heinrich Barth joined an 1849 British expedition into unexplored regions of Islamic North and Central Africa; as his companions died, he carried on alone, eventually reaching the fabled city of gold, Timbuktu. Barth's five-and-a-half-year, 10,000-mile adventure ranks among the most arduous journeys in the annals of exploration, and his discoveries are considered indispensable by modern scholars of Africa. Yet as Steve Kemper reveals here, Barth is almost completely forgotten, a victim of shifting politics, European preconceptions about Africa, and his own thorny personality. Illustrated with 8 pages of black and white illustrations, this first-ever English-language biography of Barth restores him to the pantheon of the great explorers.