Charles Darwin described him as "the greatest scientific traveler who ever lived." He is widely respected as one of the founders of modern geography. Alexander von Humboldt's travels, experiments, and knowledge transformed western science in the nineteenth century.

Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin, Germany in 1769. Alexander began to study at the Freiberg Academy of Mines. Von Humboldt met George Forester, Humboldt began a job as a government mines inspector in Franconia, Prussia, which help him in the classification of rocks.

When he was 27, Alexander's mother died, leaving him as substantial income from the estate. The following year, he left government service and began to plan travels with Aime Bonpland, a botanist. The pair went to Madrid and obtained special permission and passports from King Charles II to explore South America.

Once they arrived in South America, Alexander von Humboldt and Bonpland studied the flora, fauna, and topography of the continent. Humboldt mapped over 1700 miles of the Orinco River. This was followed by a trip to the Andes and a climb of Mt. Chimborazo (in modern Ecuador), then believed to be the tallest mountain in the world. While on the west coast of South America, von Humboldt measured and discovered the Peruvian Current, which, over the objections of von Humboldt himself, is also known as the Humboldt Current. In 1803 they explored Mexico.

Von Humboldt sailed to Paris in 1804 and wrote thirty volumes about his field studies. During his expeditions in the Americas and Europe, he recorded and reported on magnetic declination.

Von Humboldt's fortunes were ultimately exhausted because of his travels and self- publishing of his reports. In 1827, he returned to Berlin and became the King of Prussia's advisor. Von Humboldt was later invited to Russia and after exploring the nation and describing discoveries such as permafrost, he recommended that Russia establish weather observatories across the country. The stations were established and he was able to use the data to develop the principle of continentality, that the interiors of continents have more extreme climates due to a lack of moderating influence from the ocean. He also developed the first isotherm map, containing lines of equal average temperatures.

Alexander von Humboldt gave public lectures in Berlin. The lectures were so popular that new assembly halls had to be found due to the demand. As von Humboldt got older, he decided to write everything known about the earth. He called his work Kosmosand the first volume was published in 1845, when he was 76 years old. Kosmos was well written and well received. The first volume, a general overview of the universe. Other volumes focused on such topics as human's effort to describe the earth, astronomy, and earth and human interaction. Humboldt died in 1859 and the fifth and final volume was published in 1862, based on his notes for the work.

Once von Humboldt died, "no individual scholar could hope any longer to master the world's knowledge about the earth." (Geoffrey J. Martin, and Preston E. James. All Possible Worlds: A History of Geographical Ideas., page 131).

Von Humboldt was the last true master but one of the first to bring geography to the world.

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