Abraham van Riebeeck was born on 18 October 1653 in the Dutch Cape Colony (present-day South Africa).

When his father moved to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) in 1662, he sent Van Riebeeck and his brother to Holland.

[1] After his studies, he became a merchant with the Dutch East India Company and travelled on the ship De Vrijheyt to Batavia, where he arrived 1677.

[4] After he became the first person to reach the summit of Tangkuban Perahu, Van Riebeeck contracted dysentery on his way home.

He was unable to recover from the disease and died on 17 November 1713 in Batavia in the Dutch East Indies.