von Caren Dreyer

The four German Turfan expeditions from 1902-1914 led Western scholars for the first time to the Buddhist cave systems and monuments along the old trade routes in Central Asia, in those days decorated with paintings and sculptures , that is, along the northern Silk Road. Consequently, thousands of paintings and more than 40.000 text fragments and other art objects were brought to Berlin in 46 crates. These finds, as frescos from the 9th century are now one of the treasures of the Museum of Asian Art and are exhibited in the Humboldt Forum in Berlin at a central point under the great dome. This publication shows very beautiful images, how  the region of Xinjiang, an area in the far west of China's autonomous regions, once looked like it,how it looked like for travellers from Germany before the First World War. For example for Albert Grünwedel, the initiator of the Turfan expedition in 1902 and then director of the Indian Department of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, and the Turcologists Albert von Le Coq. The unique photographs in this book are impressive and historical maps provide an exact overview of the itineraries; Excerpts from letters and reports, plans and sketches reflect the conditions, to which the researchers were exposed on their explorations, a richly illustrated, archaeological and art-historical adventure book.