Édouard-Alfred Martel
| Édouard-Alfred Martel | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
1 July 1859 Pontoise |
| Died | 3 June 1938 (aged 78) Montbrison |
| Known for | Father of modern speleology |
| Awards | Legion of Honour |
Édouard-Alfred Martel (1 July 1859, Pontoise, Val-d'Oise – 3 June 1938, Montbrison), the 'father of modern speleology', was a world pioneer of cave exploration, study, and documentation. Martel explored thousands of caves in his native France and many other countries, popularised the pursuit of cave exploration, introduced the concept of speleology as a distinct area of scientific study, maintained an extensive archive, and in 1895 founded Société de Spéléologie, the first organisation devoted to cave science in the world.
No man has gone before us in these depths, no one knows where we go nor what we see, nothing so strangely beautiful was ever presented to us, and spontaneously we ask each other the same question: are we not dreaming?
Édouard-Alfred Martel was born in Pontoise, Seine-et-Oise on 1 July 1859. Born into a family of lawyers, he studied at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris. Early on, he became passionate about geography and the natural sciences and in 1877 he won first prize in an open competition for geography. He was a great reader of the works of Jules Verne. In 1866, while holidaying with his parents, he visited the Caves of Gargas in the Pyrenees. Other trips allowed him to travel to Germany, Austria and Italy. In 1879, he visited Postojna Cave in Slovenia, an extensive cave system.
In 1886, after completing his military service, he earned a law degree and became a licensed attorney with the Commercial Court of the Seine. Martel devotes his leisure and holiday time to travels across France. From 1883, he conducts work on the karstic plateaus of the Causses, shaped by the gorges of the Tarn, Jonte, Dourbie and Lot.
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