The Alluring Target: In Search of the Secrets of Central Asia

Daring expeditions on camel and yak; biplanes buffeted by gales in the Himalayas; shootouts with bandits as paleontologists race across the Mongolian steppes; lost cities beneath desert dunes, priceless art treasures and manuscripts along the ancient Silk Road – here are real-life adventures in the great uncharted "alluring target" of Central Asia at the dawn of the modern age.

Rescued from obscurity and profiled in compelling detail are eleven explorers, scientists, mystics, and just plain adventurers – including two indomitable – who journeyed through this forbidding region between 1890 and 1935 and brought back its secrets, its treasures, its knowledge, and, as vividly presented in The Alluring Target, fascinating accounts of their travels.