First Central Asian expedition

Nikolai Przhevalsky · 1870 CE – 1873 CE · Earth

First Central Asian expedition — Nikolai Przhevalsky · 1870 CE – 1873 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Survey a route from Kyakhta to Peking and southward to the Tibetan plateau, collecting plants and animals throughout.

Historical context

Inner Asia in 1870 was a blank between the Russian and Qing empires, crossed by caravans but unmeasured, and the Muslim revolt then tearing through Gansu and Xinjiang had cut even the old roads. The Geographical Society sent a young officer with four men and no diplomatic cover to see how far he could get. He got further than anyone expected, and his route surveys became the frame on which every later map of the Gobi and the Tibetan marches was hung.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Four men leave Kyakhta

    November 1870

    In November the tea town on the Mongolian border sees off a very small expedition.

  2. Urga

    1870 CE

    At the monastery city of the Bogd Gegeen the caravan is put together for the desert.

  3. The first Gobi crossing

    1871 CE

    Forty days of gravel, wind and frozen wells bring them to the gate of the Great Wall at Kalgan.

  4. The Ordos loop

    1871 CE

    He follows the Yellow River round its great northern bend, sand on one side, flood plain on the other.

  5. Winter in the Alashan

    1871 CE

    Out of money and camels, the party winters at the oasis town under the Helan mountains.

  6. Koko Nor

    October 1872

    In October the great blue salt lake appears, the first European survey of its shore.

  7. The upper Yangtze

    1873 CE

    Beyond the Tsaidam he reaches the headwater river the Tibetans call the Dre Chu, and can go no further.

  8. Back to Kyakhta

    September 1873

    In September, after eleven thousand kilometres, the four men come back across the border.

Outcome

Covered some 11,000 kilometres in three years, mapped the Ordos, the Alashan and Koko Nor, and reached the upper Yangtze before turning back for want of camels.

Nikolai Przhevalsky

Russian officer and naturalist whose four journeys into inner Asia mapped the Gobi, the Tsaidam and northern Tibet and brought back thousands of specimens from country no European had described.

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Sources

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