The Wandering Lake

The third in Sven Hedin's Central Asia trilogy, The Wandering Lake is arguably his most famous work and a rare account of a now-vanished world.
The lake of Lop Nur, the 'heart of the heart of Asia', is one of the world's strangest phenomena. Situated in the wild Chinese province of Xinjiang, Lop Nur - 'the wandering lake'- has for millennia been in a perpetual state of flux, drifting north to south, often tens of kilometres in as many years. It was once the lifeblood of the great Silk Road kingdom of Loulan, which flourished in this otherwise barren region 2,000 years ago, and its peculiar movements confused even Ptolemy, who marked the lake twice on his map of Asia.
Following 'the pulse-beats of Lop Nur as a doctor examines a patient's heart', Sven Hedin became captivated by its peripatetic movements and for forty years his destiny was inextricably linked with that of this mysterious lake and the region surrounding it. His last journey to Lop Nur was in 1934, just days after he was released as a prisoner of General Ma Chung-yin (the rebel leader of Xinjiang).
Travelling the length of the Konche-daria and Kum-daria rivers by canoe, Hedin embarked on his last Central Asian expedition and proved what he had always suspected - that Lop Nur did indeed shift position - and why. When he camped on its vast banks at night, Lop Nur was deep and full. Today, this once great lake - a mighty reservoir in the desert - is nothing but windblown sand and salty marsh.
A gripping story of adventure and discovery, The Wandering Lake is a masterpiece by one of history's last great explorers.

Sven Hedin (1865-1952) was one of the world's greatest explorers. His travels through Russia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Central Asia, China and Tibet led to some of the most important discoveries and achievements of their kind. He produced the first detailed maps of vast parts of the Pamir Mountains, the Taklamakan Desert, Tibet, the Silk Road and the Transhimalaya (Gangdise today). He was the first to unearth the ruins of ancient Buddhist cities in Chinese Central Asia and in 1901 he discovered the ancient Chinese garrison town of Lou-lan in the Taklamakan. The many manuscripts he found there are of huge historical importance. His books, which include Through Asia, Central Asia and Tibet, Overland to India, Transhimalaya, and My Life as an Explorer have been excerpted, translated and published in dozens of languages all over the world.

List of Illustrations
List of Sketches and Maps
Foreword by John Hare
I The Start of Lop-nor
II Our First Day on the River
III The Whole Expedition at Sai-cheke
IV The Last Day on the Konche-daria
V The First Days on the Kum-daria
VI Towards the Mysterious Desert
VII To an Unknown Princess's Grave
VIII In the Mazes of the Delta
IX The Journey to Lop-nor
X Our Last Days by Lop-nor and Lou-lan
XI Back to the Base Camp
XII Wild Life on the Kum-daria
XIIl Bergman's Desert Journey
XIV Chen's Work on the Kum-daria
XV To Tun-Hwang and the Grottoes of the Thousand Buddhas
XVI To the Mountain Maze of Pei-shan
XVII The Sand Dunes of the Ghashun-gobi
XVIII Through the Wild Camels' Homeland
XIX To the End of the Road
XX The Wandering Lake
XXI The Last Pulse-beat
Index