Potagos, Panayotis

▪ Greek physician and explorer

born July 1839, Vytina, Greece

died 1903

      physician and traveler attached to the Egyptian Service who explored the Uele River system in northern Congo (Kinshasa).

      Potagos began his travels in 1867, visiting Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the Gobi (desert, in China), and India. He arrived in Egypt in 1876 and began his African expeditions. He ascended the Nile River to southern Sudan and then crossed into the Congo River basin through what is now the Central African Republic, reaching the Uele River in 1877.

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