Ruins of Desert Cathay
Personal Narrative of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China

In this 1912 two-volume work, Hungarian-born archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein describes his second expedition to the deserts of Chinese Turkestan.

M. Aurel Stein (Author)

9781108077545, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 September 2014

786 pages, 116 b/w illus. 5 colour illus. 2 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 4.4 cm, 1.13 kg

In this two-volume work, published in 1912, the Hungarian-born archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943) describes his second expedition to the deserts of Chinese Turkestan in 1906–8. (His account of his first expedition, Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan (1903), is also reissued in this series.) Stein intended this account to be read by non-specialists, and, like his previous book, it is highly illustrated and full of interesting details about his journey and the people he met en route, as well as of the important archaeological discoveries which still link his name with the civilisation of this remote and dangerous area. In Volume 2, Stein describes the discovery of the caves near the great trading post of Dunhuang which contained - walled up and almost perfectly preserved - manuscripts, sculptures, silk cloths, and the Diamond Sutra, the earliest complete and dated example of a printed book, hidden by Buddhist monks nine hundred years previously.

50. Ruins en route to Tun-huang
51. First halt at Tun-huang
52. To the 'Caves of the Thousand Buddhas'
53. A difficult start from Tun-huang
54. By the ancient wall north of Tun-huang
55. Discovery of Han records
56. To the Nan-hu oasis
57. Ancient remains for the future
58. First excavations along the western limes
59. Reconnaissances along the ancient wall
60. Discoveries by the 'Jade Gate'
61. The great magazine of the limes
62. On the western flank of the limes
63. Records from an ancient watch-station
64. Return to the 'Thousand Buddhas'
65. First opening of the hidden chapel
66. A walled-up library and its treasures
67. Buddhist pictures from the hidden chapel
68. large paintings and other art relics
69. A polyglot temple library
70. Decorative art at the 'Thousand Buddhas'
71. At An-hsi, the 'West Protecting'
72. The ruins of Ch'iap-tzu
73. The 'Valley of the Myriad Buddhas'
74. In the mountains of the westernmost Nan-shan
75. By the gate of the 'Great Wall'
76. At Su-chou and its 'spring of wine'
77. Through the Richthofen range of the Nan-shan
78. Across the To-lai-shan range
79. From the Su-lo Ho sources to Kan-chou
80. From Kan-chou to the T'ien-shan
81. At the Hami oasis
82. Glimpses of Turfan ruins
83. Kara-shahr and its old sites
84. From Khora to Kuchar
85. In the 'sea of sand'
86. In a dead delta
87. Salt marsh or ice?
88. By the new Keriya river-bed
89. More Taklamakan ruins
90. From Ak-su to Yarkand
91. Preparations at Khotan
92. In the gorges of Polur and Zailik
93. To the Yurung-kash glaciers-sources
94. Across Tibetan plateaus
95. On an old mountain track
96. The search for the Yangi Dawan
97. From the Kun-lun to London
Index.

Subject Areas: Archaeology by period / region [HDD]