Panayotis or Panagiotis Potagos (; 1838 – 1903) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

physician and explorer born in

Vytina Vytina (, ''Vytína'') is a mountain village and a former municipality in Arcadia (regional unit), Arcadia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, Greece. It is considered a List of traditional settlements of Greece, traditional settlement. Since t ...

. Potagos began his travels in 1867, visiting

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (, , ; ) is a large, cold desert and grassland region in North China and southern Mongolia. It is the sixth-largest desert in the world. The name of the desert comes from the Mongolian word ''gobi'', used to refer to all of th ...

, and

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. He arrived in Egypt in 1876, ascending the

Nile River The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...

to southern Sudan and then crossed the Congo-Nile Divide into the

Congo River The Congo River, formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third-largest river in the world list of rivers by discharge, by discharge volume, following the Amazon Ri ...

basin through what is now the Central African Republic and finally reached the

Uele River The Uele, also known by the phonetically identical Uélé, Ouélé, or Welle River, is a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Course The Uele forms at Dungu, at the confluence of the Dungu and Kibali rivers, which both originate ...

in 1877. He was the first European to reach the

Mbomou Mbomou is one of the twenty prefectures of the Central African Republic Since 10 December 2020, The Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to Central ...

and Uele rivers from the north. He published an account of his travels, which was translated into French. He died in the village of Nymfes,

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Works

* . * . * .

References

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

*A biographical dictionary of the Sudan by Richard Leslie Hill
Sur le voyage de M. Panagiotis Potagos en Asie centrale - 1880

External links

* - which raises questions about the accuracy of Potagos' account of his travels Greek explorers 20th-century Greek physicians 19th-century Greek physicians 1903 deaths 1838 births 19th-century explorers Explorers of Africa Explorers of Asia Explorers of Central Asia People from Vytina {{greece-bio-stub