The Orientalist, writer and dandy Baron Heinrich von Maltzan was a passionate traveller as well as an attentive observer and a good storyteller. In 1860 he went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. By Andreas Pflitsch
Among the many Arab intellectuals who travelled through Europe in the 19th century, Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq stands out as a dazzling character. He was a brilliant intellectual, and he was a combative spirit. A portrait by Barbara Winckler
In the 19th century it was not only Europeans who were seized by the wanderlust to see the Orient. The number of people traveling in the opposite direction, from the Orient to Europe, also rose rapidly. Barbara Winckler reports