At a time when Africa was considered a fascinating yet unpredictable and dangerous land, a man ventured deep into the heart of the "Black Continent": Heinrich Barth set out in 1849 on a British government-sponsored expedition with a three-man English team to explore North and Central Africa. He visited the once legendary gold city of Timbuktu on the Niger River, where the official mission objective of developing trade opportunities confronted harsh realities. After a total of 2,100 days in the Sahara, known as "Bar bela mar," sea without water, and in Sudan, during which he covered nearly 20,000 kilometers and endured almost superhuman hardships, the researcher returned to Europe five and a half years later as the sole survivor of the expedition—armed with information about the land and its people that opened up a new continent to European science. Heinrich Barth, the universal scholar and father of classical African studies, already recognized the crucial connections between environment and history. His legacy continues to resonate today and will be more important than ever in the future: At the Heinrich Barth Institute of the University of Cologne, research is conducted in support of initiatives to preserve Africa's natural and cultural heritage, and the Heinrich Barth Society gathers many who feel connected to Barth's spirit. Utilizing knowledge of the past for an environmentally friendly future, not only in Africa but around the world, is what we must learn from Heinrich Barth.