Gertrude Bell
Helped draw modern Iraq
British explorer, archaeologist and diplomat (1868-1926).
First woman to earn a first-class history degree at Oxford, then spent two decades wandering the deserts of Syria, Arabia and Mesopotamia — mapping ruins, learning Arabic and Persian, and earning the trust of Bedouin sheikhs. After WWI, the British government leaned on her unmatched knowledge to help draw the borders of the new Iraq; she also founded the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.
Famous for
- The Desert and the Sown (1907)
- Architect of modern Iraq's borders
- Founded the Iraq Museum (Baghdad, 1923)
- Mountaineer + first to climb several Alpine peaks
In Rubicon
Gertrude Bell is one of the historical characters you can play as in Rubicon, a trivia game where you answer in your own words and an AI judge reads what you meant. Gertrude Bell is filed under Geography & Places, and is strongest at Geography & Places and History & Civilization.
Others in Geography & Places
- Ida Pfeiffer — World traveler
- Ibn Battuta — Medieval world's greatest traveler
- Zheng He — Admiral of China's treasure fleet