Granger

Who was Granger?

Granger, was a French physician and traveller, with a major interest in natural history.

According to the preface of the only work attributed to him, his real name was Tourtechot, and for reasons not explained he changed it to Granger. Granger or Tourtechot is presumably his surname. Sometimes he is listed as Nicolas Granger, Tourtechot Granger, or N. Granger.

In the 1720s he worked as a physician in a Christian hospital in Tunis, a position he acquired on account of his friend Jean Pierre Pignon, the French consul in Tunis at that time. Moving back to France in 1728, he accompanied Dignon to Egypt in 1731, when Pignon was assigned French Consul in Cairo. During his stay in Egypt, Granger travelled up the Nile to Aswan, documenting a large number of ancient monuments, as well as a considerable amount of its natural history, including animals, plants and minerals. On his return from Egypt in 1732, Granger received a commission from King Louis XV of France, to travel around the Middle East and acquire any kind of information that could help advance the knowledge of natural history in general. Leaving France in 1733 he managed to visit Crete, Egypt again, Cyprus, Palestine and Syria, but died en route toward Persian, two days march from Basra.