Friedrich Heinrich Alexander Humboldt (Baron von Humboldt) was a German traveller and naturalist. He was was born in 1769 at Berlin and died in 1859. His father held the post of royal chamberlain at Berlin. He studied at the Universities of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Berlin, and Gottingen, and also at the commercial academy in Hamburg.
His first work was Observations on the Basalt of the Rhine published in 1790. In 1791 he studied mining and botany at the mining school in Freiberg, and subsequently became overseer of the mines in Franconia. In 1797 he resolved to make a scientific journey in the tropical zones along with a friend, Aime Bonpland. They landed at Cumana, in South America, in July, 1799, and spent five years in exploring scientifically the, region of the Orinoco and the upper part of the Rio Negro, the district between Quito and Lima, the city of Mexico and the surrounding country, and the island of Cuba. In 1804 they arrived at Bordeaux, bringing with them an immense mass of fresh knowledge in geography, geology, climatology, meteorology, botany, zoology, and every branch of natural science, as well as in ethnology and political statistics.
Humboldt selected Paris as his residence, no other city offering so many aids to scientific study, and remained there arranging his collections and manuscripts until March, 1805, after which he visited Rome and Naples in company with Gay-Lussac, but eventually returned to Paris in 1807, when the first volume of his great work, Voyage aux Regions equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, appeared; the thirtieth and last was published in 1827.
In 1827 Humboldt, who had been offered several high posts by the government of Prussia, and had accompanied the king on several journeys as part of his suite, was persuaded to give up his residence at Paris and settle at Berlin, where he combined the study of science with a certain amount of diplomatic work. In 1829, under the patronage of the CzarNicholas, he made an expedition to Siberia and Central Asia, which resulted in some valuable discoveries, published in his Asie Centrale.
In 1835 he published at Paris his Examen Critique de la Geographic du Nouveau Continent. In 1845 appeared the first volume of the Cosmos, his chief work, a vast and comprehensive survey of natural phenomena, in which the idea of the unity of the forces which move below the variety of nature is thoroughly grasped. Research Friedrich Humboldt
Brahma is the Hindu supreme god and creator of the cosmos. He is the first person of the Hindu triad, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. He is represented as a man of a red colour with four faces and generally four hands each of which holds a portion of the Vedas, in one a lustral vessel, in one a rosary, and in one a sacrificial spoon. Research Brahma
In Norse mythology, Vili was a son of Bor and Bestla and a brother of Odin and Ve. Together with Odin and Ve, he killed the giantYmir, created the cosmos out of Ymir's carcass and made the first man and woman. He gave the humans thought and motion. Research Vili
Abbreviations
Research Friedrich Humboldt
