Biography
Barth was born in Hamburg. He was educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums and the University of Berlin, where he graduated in 1844. He studied under the guidance of scholars such as Alexander von Humboldt, Leopold von Ranke, Friedrich von Schelling and Jakob Grimm, who all laid the foundations of human geography and historical research in the modern sense, as an expression of the Enlightenment.
Barth had already visited Italy and Sicily; he formed a plan to journey through the Mediterranean countries. After studying Arabic in London, he set out on his travels in 1845. He acted for the British Foreign Office in 1850.
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