Not really an explorer, but indirectly connected to magnificent landscapes in the Ottoman Empire, Luigi Mayer (1755-1803), an Italian-German painter, was born in Rome. He was a student of the well-known illustrator and engraver J. B. Piranesi. 1776, we find him in the capital of the Ottoman Empire, in the Porte, around the British ambassador Sir R. Ainslie (1776-1792). From that date onwards, he covered the expenses of the ambassador Ainslie Mayer and commissioned him to draw and paint the important landscapes, especially archaeological sites, in the lands of the Ottoman Empire.
Mayer not only draw monuments of antiquity, but also added delightful details from people's daily life, dress features, and scenes from public life. His works, which were very popular in Mayer's time, were published as stone engravings, especially after 1801, and were spread widely by overprinting. The paintings in these prints, which were completed gradually, were of various themes and were printed in three languages (English, French, German). The descriptions that complement the pictures are texts taken from the travel books of that period.
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