Journey of Archaeological and Topographical Exploration in Chinese Turkestan. Sir Marc Aurel Stein. Published by London Published under the authority of H.M.'s Secretary of State for India in Council, 1901 First edition16 plates, four of which are in colour, black and white illustrations in the text, original gilt maroon cloth, Stein made his first major expedition to Central Asia, in particular the Khotan region, at the behest of the Government of India in 1900. Stein was incredibly successful on his travels and as he explains in the introduction to the present work, 'the preparation of a detailed account of these explorations and of the antiquarian and epigraphical discoveries which I was fortunate enough to make, will require considerable time and labour'. It did indeed take some time. The Book is actually an Elephantine Folio, half the size of a single bed. It has Maps and Details of Turkistan then undiscovered. Ella Maillart, the famous traveller visited Kumar, more than once. She was introduced by Nita Thapar, of the well-known Thapar family in India. Maillart was on a sabbatical in India to discover, as described by her own self, her ‘inner self’. She would spend the whole day leafing through travel books, particularly pouring over the Elephantine Folio of Sir Auriel Stein, the well-known archaeologist of Central Asia. Later she would use the book to chart out a journey to Turkistan. Maillart described the huge collection of books in the drawing room as ‘navigating around an enormous Indian divan …with books all around’.
Journey of Archaeological and Topographical Exploration in Chinese Turkestan
