In this volume of his exploration Sir Aurel Stein presents the accounts of the vast deserts of Central Asia from 1900 to 1916 during which he was guided principally by the accounts of two earlier travelers Marco Polo and Hsuantsang. He covered more than 25,000 miles on foot and sometimes by ponyback with a force consisting of few Muslims of the Indian survey department with a handful of caravan men and a motley band of local recruits for digging. He unearthed a host of oasis settlements and salvaged an immense amount of material which a loaded onto camels and eventually shipped to Delhi and London for study and display.