Lara Croft is a fictional archaeologist created by British video game developer Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. She first appeared in the 1996 video game Tomb Raider and has since become a major icon of the video game industry. Lara Croft is presented as an athletic and fast-thinking English archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world. She is also highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, weapons proficiency, and foreign languages.