This book is the first scientific biography of a remarkable scientist - geologist, geographer and traveler of the mid-19th century. E.K. Hoffmann, who devoted his life to studying the nature of the Urals, Ukraine and Crimea, Eastern Siberia, and the south of Kamchatka. The main area of ​ ​ his field research was the Urals, where, as a result of his expeditions, the Pai-Khoy ridge was discovered, the sources of many rivers were specified, the absolute heights of a number of mountains and settlements were determined, vivid descriptions of the nature and life of the indigenous population were given. A glacier in the Subpolar Urals and a cape at the mouth of the Kara River are named after him.