Oskar Lenz

The primary purpose of the expedition was to perform geological studies of the region, investigating the possibilities of iron ore deposits.

In 1880, with his Spaniard companion Cristobal Benítez, he became only the fourth European to visit the fabled city of Timbuktu.

The main reasons of the project were to survey the economic trade situation in the newly established Congo Free State and to map the Congo-Nile watershed between the Nile and Congo Rivers.

On the expedition, he was accompanied by cartographer Oskar Baumann (up until succumbing to illness on the mission) and ornithologist Friedrich Bohndorff.

Following the completion of his duties in Africa, he became a professor at the University of Prague (June 1887).