László Adolf Ede György Mária Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós (Hungarian: zsadányi és törökszentmiklósi Almásy László Adolf Ede György Mária; pronounced [ˈɒlmaːʃi ˈlaːsloː ˈɛdɛ]; 22 August/3 November 1895 – 22 March 1951) was a Hungarian aristocrat, motorist, desert explorer, aviator, Scout-leader, and sportsman who served as the basis for the protagonist in both Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient (1992) and the movie adaptation of the same name (1996).

[2] Returning to Hungary, Almásy became the personal secretary of the Bishop of Szombathely, János Mikes [hu], one of the leading figures of the abortive post-war Habsburg restoration attempt.

He managed to persuade a wealthy friend, Prince Antal Eszterházy, to join him in driving a Steyr from Alexandria to Khartoum, before embarking on a hunting expedition to the Dinder River, a feat which had never before been accomplished by an ordinary automobile.

In 1931 Almásy made arrangements with a Cairo–Cape Town expedition, led by Captain G. Malins,[6] to make a detour and accompany him to Uweinat and northern Sudan on what was planned to be the first exploration of the Libyan Desert by aeroplane.

They took off from Mátyásföld Airport [fr; hu] in Budapest on 21 August in a De Havilland Gipsy Moth that had been purchased by Zichy in England a few weeks earlier.

[9] Later in 1932, Almásy's sponsor and travel companion Sir Robert Clayton East-Clayton died of acute spinal poliomyelitis contracted within two months of completing the spring 1932 expedition to the Gilf Kebir.

)[10] Despite the setbacks, Almásy succeeded in organizing another Zerzura expedition for the spring of 1933, this time with the desert explorer Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein as his sponsor.

Penderel, the Austrian writer Richard Bermann (pen name Arnold Hollriegel) and the German cinematographer and photographer Hans Casparius [de].

They copied and cataloged the known prehistoric rock art sites, and made a large number of new discoveries at Karkur Talh (Jebel Uweinat) and the famous Cave of Swimmers at Wadi Sora in the Gilf Kebir.

The expedition erected a memorial tablet for Prince Kelam el Din (who died the previous year, giving another blow to Almásy's ambitions) at the southern tip of the Gilf Kebir plateau.

[14] In February 1935, Almásy and his colleague Hansjoachim von der Esch became the first Europeans to re-establish contact with the Magyarab tribe, living on an island of the Nile opposite Wadi Halfa in Nubia, who speak Arabic but are believed to be the descendants of Nubian women and Hungarian soldiers serving in the Ottoman army in the 16th century.

After the failure of Plan el Masri and the first Operation Condor to airdrop two German spies into Egypt (ending with the ditching of one of the two aircraft and the injury of Ritter), Almásy assumed command of the unit.

Almásy successfully delivered the two Abwehr agents, Johannes Eppler and his radio operator Hans-Gerd Sandstede [de], to Assiut in Egypt after crossing the Gilf Kebir and Kharga Oasis.

However, as the warning to the British HQ ME in Cairo arrived too late (due to the imminent attack of Rommel), Afrika Korps messages had a higher priority for deciphering and analysis, and Almásy was able to return to his starting point at Gialo unhindered.

[22][23] There is some evidence that Almásy remained in contact with the Abwehr until late 1943, and yet was involved in the rescue of several Hungarian Jews from the mass deportation to Nazi camps in 1944, including the fencer Jenő Fuchs and his family.

The British then spirited him into British-occupied Austria using a false passport under the name of Josef Grossman, then on to Rome, where he was escorted by Ronnie Waring, later 18th Duke of Valderano.

While he claimed to have been working for MI6 as the Rome "resident", there is no corroborating proof that Almásy was helped by British Intelligence, and the story was only released following the wide media publicity generated by the 1996 film The English Patient.

Almásy became ill in 1951 during a visit in Austria, and died 22 March of complications induced by amoebic dysentery—contracted during a trip to Mozambique the previous year—in a hospital in Salzburg, where he was then buried.

The Abu Ramla Sahara Expedition visited the Nubian territory and the three ancient capitals of the Kushite kingdom: Kerma, Napata and Meroë.

Almásy remained a little-known desert explorer until 1996, when he (or rather his fictitious character) was thrown into the limelight by the Academy Award-winning film The English Patient.

While the storyline is pure fiction, some of the characters and the events surrounding the search for Zerzura and the Cave of Swimmers have been adapted from Geographical Journal articles describing the expeditions of the real Almásy into the Libyan Desert.

The publicity attracted by the film helped uncover many hitherto unknown details about Almásy's life, but also resulted in a huge volume of inaccurate or outright untrue claims, mostly related to his World War II activities, which continue to circulate in print and on the web.