Full name: Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia

Author: Peter Hopkirk Year: 1980 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: History, Non Fiction, Travel Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780870234354 9780719564482 0870234358 0719564484

The Silk Road, which linked imperial Rome and distant China, was once the greatest thoroughfare on earth. Along it travelled precious cargoes of silk, gold and ivory, as well as revolutionary new ideas. Its oasis towns blossomed into thriving centres of Buddhist art and learning. In time it began to decline. The traffic slowed, the merchants left and finally its towns vanished beneath the desert sands to be forgotten for a thousand years. But legends grew up of lost cities filled with treasures and guarded by demons. In the early years of the last century foreign explorers began to investigate these legends, and very soon an international race began for the art treasures of the Silk Road. Huge wall paintings, sculptures and priceless manuscripts were carried away, literally by the ton, and are today scattered through the museums of a dozen countries. Peter Hopkirk tells the story of the intrepid men who, at great personal risk, led these long-range archaeological raids, incurring the undying wrath of the Chinese. Similar books: Quest for Kim by Peter Hopkirk Trespassers on the Roof of the World by Peter Hopkirk The Silk Road by Frances Wood Life along the Silk Road by Susan Whitfield On Secret Service East of Constantinople by Peter Hopkirk Setting the East Ablaze by Peter Hopkirk The Silk Road by Valerie Hansen Empires of the Silk Road by Christopher I. Beckwith The Dust of Empire by Karl E. Meyer The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk In Europe by Geert Mak A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz South with Endurance by Frank Hurley The Fourth Part of the World by Toby Lester Amsterdam by Russell Shorto The Terracotta Army by John Man Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress by Jan Morris Pax Britannica by Jan Morris The Discovery of France by Graham Robb