Mount Roraima was made famous in 1912 when Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle wrote his fictional novel entitled The Lost World. It describes the ascent of a Roraima-like mountain by an exploratory party in search of prehistoric plants and dinosaurs that were believed to live isolated and unchanged for millions of years on the mountains summit. Conan-Doyle was inspired by the British botanist Everard Im Thurn who on December 18, 1884 with Harry Perkins, was the first to reach the summit of Mount Roraima. Im Thurn and Perkins were not the first Europeans to see Mount Roraima, that goes to Robert Schomburgk, a German born explorer and scientist who explored the region for Britains's Royal Geographical Society in 1838. When Im Thurn returned to Europe to present lectures on his expedition, Conan-Doyle attended one of his shows and was fascinated by the account, allowing his fervent imagination to wander.
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