László Almásy: "The Unknown Sahara"

Almásy wrote three books about his travels and explorations in North Africa. All appeared in The Hungarian Geographical Society Library series, edited by Jeno Cholnoky. (The series reproduced in Hungarian many important foreign books on exploration and travel, alongside the works of Hungarian travelers & explorers).

Autóval Szudánba (With Motorcar to the Sudan) Budapest, 1927	Az ismeretlen Szahara (The Unknown Sahara) Budapest, 1934	Levegöben, homokon (In Air, on Sand) Budapest, 1937

The first book, "With Motorcar to the Sudan" described a motorcar trip (the first with an ordinary automobile) from Alexandria to Southern Sudan, via Cairo and Khartoum in the company of Prince Antal Eszterházy.

The second, and most significant, "The Unknown Sahara" described his explorations in the Libyan Desert between 1929 and 1934, and formed the foundation of later French and German versions.

The third book, "In Air, on Sand" (which is very rare, I have only seen one real copy in the library of the Geographical Museum near Budapest) contains more chapters on the early explorations and aviation feats, plus some chapters on the explorations in the Libyan Desert in 1935-36.

In 1936, Almasy published an abridged version of "The Unknown Sahara", "Recentes Explorations dans le Desert Libyque", focusing primarily on the discovery of "Zarzura", and the rock art sites, complete with a chapter on the more recent explorations in Cairo in French language. (This became the standard reference book on Almásy's discoveries in the scientific literature.)

Recentes Explorations dans le Desert Libyque Cairo, 1936

Some years later Almásy published "Unbekannte Sahara" in German, which was a shortened combined version of "The Unknown Sahara" and "In Air, on Sand", containing about 66% of the chapters of the two works. I have recently discovered, that an abridged paperback version containing only the 'Darb el Arbain' and 'Waddan' chapters was published by Brockhaus in 1943 titled "Die Strasse der Vierzig Tage".

A new edition of "Unbekannte Sahara" was published in Vienna in 1997 as "Schwimmer in der Wüste", including the missing chapters from "The Unknown Sahara", but not those from "In Air, on Sand". It also included a re-translation of Almásy's wartime diary of Operation Salaam.

Unbekannte Sahara Leipzig, 1939	Die Strasse der Vierzig Tage Leipzig, 1943	Schwimmer in der Wüste Vienna, 1997

While the writings of Almásy are well known in Hungary and the German speaking countries, nothing is available in English, despite all the fuss and publicity generated by the movie "The English Patient".

I'm currently working on a full english translation of the original Hungarian version of "The Unknown Sahara" and "In Air, on Sand", complete with added paragraphs from "Recentes explorations..." and the original english translation of the 1942 Operation Salaam diary. Contact me by email for more information.

Click here to read a sample (pdf)