Hedin's masterwork of his third and most ambitious expedition. He was the first European to reach the holy Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, meeting the 9th Pancha Lama in Shigatse, and recorded the sources of the Indus and Brahmaputra rivers.

The text includes volumes on Lake Manasarowar and the sources of the Great Indian Rivers, Transhimalaya, Karakorum and Chang-Tang, history of the expedition and Chinese Knowledge of Central Asia and journeys in eastern Pamir. The atlas volumes contain maps showing general routes, relief maps of Tibetan highlands, atlas of Tibetan panoramas and pen and ink sketches of the regions. A giant work on Southern Tibet that 'will certainly and for a very long time stand as the chief document in the history of exploration in those unknown parts of Asia. This is a regal work, magnificent as regards both range and production. Hedin shows an energy which shrinks from no toil, and a conscientiousness which would ignore nothing from which investigation could be obtained'.

First & only edition; 13 vols, comprising 9 vols text and 1 vol. prospectus 4to (29 x 23 cm), 2 vols of maps and 1 vol. of panoramas folio (39 x 30 cm); illustrated throughout with photographic plates and maps, a little toning to spines as usual, the map volumes with tears to spines as usual, a touch of fraying elsewhere with a little more to spine of vol. II and IX, generally an excellent set.

Yakushi H179.