Going to see the Bromo, one of Java’s most famous volcanoes, is not only a popular excursion with modern-day tourists; it was also a favourite destination with nineteenth-century visitors. Published in De Huisvriend of 1896, the article ‘Tosari. Een herstellingsoord in het Javaansche gebergte’ describes the Bromo thus: ‘Moreover, it is easy to climb and it is reckoned to be one of the most visited sites in Java’. Various travel guides similarly recommended a visit to the volcano. The editors of the 1896 Reisgids voor Nederlandsch-Indië (Travel Guide to the Dutch East Indies), for instance, highly commended the Bromo as a tourist excursion: the hike towards it across the vast ‘Sea of Sand’ was magnificent and the climb up the volcano, reached via a well-maintained set of steps, gave the traveller a ‘sensation of enjoyable scariness and oppressiveness’. Writer and cigar maker Justus van Maurik, travelling with this guide in hand, went to see the Bromo that same year.
The Sea of Sand and the Bromo in the Tengger Massif, with the writer Justus van Maurik in the foreground. Photo: H. Salzwedel. 1896. [KITLV 19685]