Lady Anne Blunt was a woman who knew her passion and it was Arabian horses. She set out, along with her husband, to trace the homeland of these horses. Together they traveled through Spain, Algeria, Asia Minor and then into unvisited (by Westerners) regions of Central Arabia.
She documented the travels, with great detail towards the people and geography that they came across. She adapted the Bedouin way of life, speaking Arabic, dressing like Bedouins, eating, sleeping on the ground and eating local food such at grasshopper and hyena. She invented a tent that was easy to take down and yet hold up the the desert winds. Their new lifestyle left Anne very ill at ease whenever they ran into European lifestyle preferring life in the desert over the more “domesticated” life. She would diffuse attacks and raids, as the men were shocked when a European woman would stand up and talk Arabic to them.
After these journeys they split their time between Cairo and Egypt. Anne eventually split with her husband and lived out her remaining days in Cairo until her death in 1917.
Lady Anne Blunt • English Explorer of Arabia • 1837-1917