Read an Excerpt
Introduction by Anthony Brandt.
Over the course of three decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Swedish geographer and explorer Sven Hedin traveled Central Asia¼s ancient Silk Road, along the way discovering lost cities, mapping uncharted rivers, and seeing more of "the roof of the world" than any European before him. Illustrated with 160 sketches by the author, this larger-than-life memoir captures the splendor of now-vanished civilizations, the excitement of unearthing ancient monuments, the chilling terror of snow-clogged mountain passes, the danger of infiltrating Tibet and of outwitting Torgut bandits, and the honor of close friendships with royalty from Peking to London.
A worldwide bestseller in the 1920s and named one of National Geographic Adventure magazine's "100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time," the National Geographic Adventure Classics edition of My Life as an Explorer features an expedition map and exclusive reprints of articles Hedin wrote for National Geographic between 1897 and 1905.
