Foreign Devils on the Silk Road : Search for the Lost Treasures of Central Asia - Peter Hopkirk

Foreign Devils on the Silk Road

Search for the Lost Treasures of Central Asia

By: Peter Hopkirk

Paperback | 11 May 2006 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $26.99

$22.95

15%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $5.74 with

Aims to ship in 5 to 10 business days

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.
Industry Reviews
Recounted with great skill . . . opens a window onto a fascinating world - Financial Times

Highly readable and elegant - Times Literary Supplement

More in European History

The Spy in the Archive : How one man tried to kill the KGB - Gordon Corera
The Catalpa Rescue - Peter FitzSimons

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Letters from a Stoic : The Ancient Classic - Seneca

RRP $24.95

$21.75

13%
OFF
Abandoned Women : Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas - Lucy Frost
Night : Penguin Modern Classics - Elie Wiesel

RRP $22.99

$17.75

23%
OFF
Kokoda : Updated Edition - Peter FitzSimons

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
The Gulag Archipelago : 1918-56 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

RRP $37.99

$30.50

20%
OFF
Say Nothing : True Story Of Murder and Memory In Northern Ireland - Patrick Radden Keefe
The Templars - Dan Jones

Paperback

RRP $22.99

$20.35

11%
OFF
The Journals of Captain Cook : Penguin Classics - James Cook

RRP $27.99

$23.75

15%
OFF
The War on the West : How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason - Douglas Murray
An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West - Konstantin Kisin

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
The CIA Book Club : The Best-Kept Secret of the Cold War - Charlie English
Exterminate/Regenerate : The Story of Doctor Who - John Higgs

RRP $55.00

$42.25

23%
OFF
The Anarchy : The Relentless Rise of the East India Company - William Dalrymple
London : A Guide for Curious Wanderers - Jack Chesher

RRP $35.00

$28.50

19%
OFF
Sword : D-Day - Trial by Battle - Max Hastings

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
Henry V : The Astonishing Rise of England's Greatest Warrior King - Dan Jones
The Wretched of the Earth : Penguin Modern Classics - Frantz Fanon
Discourses and Selected Writings : Penguin Classics - Epictetus
The Strange Death of Europe : Immigration, Identity, Islam - Douglas Murray