Gustav Fischer

The first European to record a sighting of Meru was the German explorer, Karl von der Decken, who reached this area in 1862. The mountain was later seen and described by other explorers, including Gustav Fischer in 1882, and Joseph Thompson the following year. In 1887, the Austro-Hungarian Count Samuel Teleki and members of his team penetrated the dense forest on the lower slopes and reached a point where the trees thinned out enough for them to see Kilimanjaro, which they planned to climb later in their expedition. The first ascent to the summit of Meru is credited to either Carl Uhlig in 1901 or Fritz Jaeger in 1904.

A.G. Fisher reported that Lengai was liable to eruption

The first scientific description of Oldoinyo Lengai was by G.A. Fischer in 1883. He observed "smoke" rising from the summit and recorded reports by local people of rumbling noises within the mountain (Fischer 1885, quoted in Dawson et al. 1995).

This map accompanied the account of Dr. S.A. Fischer's safari through "Maasai-Land, von Pangani bis zum Naiwascha See". He followed the Lengai-Natron Route and did not add greatly to the knowledge of the Ngorongoro Serengeti area. Ngorongoro is badly misplaced and Mbugwe, properly at the south end of Lake Manaya [sic] has been transposed to the west of the Rift Wall. A vague caravan route from Kavirondo to Tanga is shown cutting across the Serengeti from the northern tip of Lake Manyara.

The first to record the existence of these ruins over 60 years ago was Dr. Fischer, who, marching south along the foot of the 'Rift Wall' during the first exploration of Masailand, passed them on the 5th July 1983 and wrote thus

'The ground, covered with crippled mimosa trees [he obviously means acacias - CG], showed yellowish grey loam; at one place peculiar masses of stone became suddenly apparent, rising from the plain to heights up to ten feet. Partly they looked like mouldering tree trunks, partly like the tumbled down walls of ancient castles.'

The Lovebirds are named after him [Gustav Fischer]