Gerhard Friedrich (Gerhard) Rohlfs (1831–96)

German explorer. Studied medicine in Göttingen, Heidelberg, and Würzburg. Served in the Foreign Legion, Algeria, 1855–60. Travelled to Morocco, crossed North Africa from Tripoli via Bornu to the Gulf of Guinea, 1865–7, and explored the Libyan desert, 1869, 1873–4. First European to reach Kufra, 1878. Took part in an English expedition to Abyssinia, 1880–1. German consul-general, Zanzibar, 1884–5.