Prof. F Jaeger

First recorded ascent of Mount Meru by Prof. F Jaeger

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.

The first scientist to climb to the summit crater was F. Jaeger in 1904.

Jaeger merely mentions that he and Uhlig 'found' the Engaruka ruins during their expedition in 1904; they camped on the Engaruka stream on the 29th September, and again on 5th October, but neither Uhlig's otherwise fairly detailed map to the scale of 1 in 150,000 nor Jaeger's later map of 1911, indicate these ruins. Jaeger merely says that they are 'alleged' to be of Tatogo origin.

'Grass, grass, grass, grass and grass. One looks around and sees only grass and sky'

"And all this a sea of grass, grass, grass, grass and grass. One looks around and sees only grass and sky", exulted Fritz Jaeger; who in 1907 was one of the first Europeans to visit the area.