Sámuel Teleki He was a Hungarian explorer who led the first expedition to Northern Kenya. He was the first European to see, and name, Lake Rudolf For the Chancellor of Transylvania , see Sámuel Teleki.

Early life Teleki was born November 1, 1845 in Sáromberke. He was a member of a prominent Hungarian family active in both politics and culture. Another Sámuel Teleki a chancellor of Transylvania, had founded the Teleki library in Marosvásárhely, one of the first Hungarian public libraries, and it holds today more than 200,000 priceless volumes. For some 40 years, Sámuel Teleki started a political career by becoming a member of the Hungarian Upper House of Parliament. A keen hunter, he was fascinated by the early African explorers. In 1886, he accepted a suggestion by his friend to turn the East African safari he was planning into a journey of exploration of the territories north of Lake Baringo. He was to explore the lands beyond where Scottish explorer Joseph Thomson had set foot, in order to find the desert lake previous travellers had heard rumours about.

His first expedition Teleki and his companion, Lieutenant Ludwigvon Höhnel, an Austrian naval officer, left Tanzania in February 1887 with around 400 porters, following the Ruvu river. They were the first to survey a great part of the East African Rift Valley. Teleki was the first to reach the snow-line on Mount Kilimanjaro at 5,300 m, and the first explorer to set foot on Mount Kenya, climbing up to around 4,300 m. He later headed on northwards, to discover the last of the Great Lakes. The lake was renamed Turkana. Teleki and Höhnel made many observations on the climate, flora and fauna of the territories visited. One of the giant Lobelia plants found is named Lobelia telekii, after Count Samuel Teleki. They also collected more than 400 ethnographical objects, They also brought home a valuable collection of plants and animals.

Teleki's volcano During the return to the East African coast, Teleki discovered an active volcanoin South Kenya in1888. In 1895 Teleki was back in Kenya in another unsuccessful effort to climb the Kilimanjaro.

East African diaries Teleki wrote "East African diaries", in Hungarian, with English translations. Von Höhnel wrote a report of the expedition entitled The discovery of Lakes Rudolf and Stefanie. After the expedition, Teleki returned to his aristocratic life in Hungary, dying in Budapest after a long illness. He die March 10, 1916.

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