Wilhelm von Boldensele [SEP] date of birth
Wilhelm von Boldensele
Wilhelm von Boldensele (c. 1285 – 1338/39) was a German knight and oriental traveler from Lower Saxony.
Boldensele visited Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula and the Levant from 1333 to 1336 together with Heinrich von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen and Ludolf von Sudheim. In 1333 he records Jews regularly visiting graves in Jerusalem, and mentions the natural cave (Grotto of Gethsemane) in the Gethsemane where Jesus and his disciples retreated to pray after the Last Supper. He describes the Giza pyramids in 1335.
little-read works, sometimes only unpublished manuscripts in libraries or private collections, including Henry Castela, Hans Ludwig von Lichtenstein, Michael Heberer von Bretten, Wilhelm von Boldensele, Pierre Belon du Mans, Vincent Stochove, Christophe Harant, Gilles Fermanel, Robert Fauvel, Jean Palerne Foresien, Willian Lithgow, Joos van Ghistele, etc.
Over the centuries, writers and scholars have recorded their impressions and reactions upon seeing the Sphinx. The vast majority were concerned with a general description, often including a mixture of science, romance