Johann Gottfried Ebel

He became a medical man, visited Switzerland for the first time in 1790, and became so enamoured of it that he spent three years exploring the country and collecting all kinds of information relating to it.

The result was the publication (Zürich, 1793) of his Anleitung, auf die nützlichste und genussvollste Art in der Schweitz zu reisen (2 vols), in which he gave a complete account of the country, the General Information sections being followed by an alphabetically arranged list of places, with descriptions.

In 1808 he issued his chief geological work, Über den Bau der Erde im Alpengebirge (Zürich, 2 vols).

He took an active share in promoting all that could make his adopted country better known, e.g. Heinrich Keller's map (1813), the building of a hotel on the Rigi (1816), and the preparation of a panorama from that point (1823).

From 1810 onwards he lived at Zürich, with the family of his friend, Conrad Escher von der Linth (1767–1823), a celebrated engineer.