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Customer Reviews (2)

Visualy stunning atlas
This visually stunning book is also a remarkable scholarly accomplishment.Until its publication, none of the roughly 30,000 inhabitants of the Mongolian Altai knew more than a small part of the region and very few outsiders had even entered the area.No reliable maps existed.Now accurate maps and photographs document the thousands of archaeological sites for the whole world to see.The heart of this study is the relationship between the various ancient stone monuments and the landscape in which they were contructed.

Fifteen years of intensive work was aided by friendships nurtured with the local herders and by western technology.
The atlas shows the western 2 or 3% of the huge Mongolian nation in incredible detail.Here wide treeless valleys stretch down from the Altai mountains which mark the boundary between Mongolia on the east, Russian Siberia on the north and China's northern Xinjiang Autonomous Region on the southwest.These mountains attain their highest summit at Mount Khuitan, 4,374 meters (14,350 feet) above sea level.All of Mongolia has an area of about 1,564,000 square kilometers (604,000 square miles), almost twice as big as Texas but a population of less than 3,000,000.The Altai mountain basin is even more sparsely populated so that sweeping vistas seldom show any sign of contemporary humans.Most of the pictures and maps focus on a huge array of stone monuments and carvings left mainly over the last 4,000 years and generally undisturbed because they are still venerated by the very few people who ever see them.The recent sparse beginnings of tourism put their continued survival at risk.

Just over a century ago V. V. Sapozhinskov was the first outsiders to travel the Mongolian Altai.The three authors of this atlas are art historian/anthropologist Esther Jacobson-Tepfer and her husband photographer Gary Tepfer who have visited the region repeatedly, and James E. Meacham who used his cartographic skills to transfer their numerous observations into an outstanding atlas.

For the non-scholar and non-cartographer, the numerous photographs will be the treasure of this book.They show sweeping views of this unknown area which the ancient monuments were intended to celebrate and enhance.Snow capped mountains are often in the distance, but trees are far less common.

A singularly stunning coffee table book, highly recommended especially to armchair travelers
Archaeology and Landscape in the Mongolian Altai: An Atlas is an extraordinary reference presenting the exploration and survey of one of the last, remote corners of the world to be cartographically documented. In 1994, authors Esther Jacobson-Tepfer and James E. Meacham began to survey the western-most part of the Mongolian Altai, and their findings - including tremendously beautiful color photographs, detailed maps, and vividly detailed verbal descriptions accessible to readers of all backgrounds - are offered not only as a scholarly reference, but also as a testimony to the wonder of the rugged natural world. A singularly stunning coffee table book, highly recommended especially to armchair travelers. ... Read more

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Nicholas Roerich's classic 1929 mystic travel book is back in print! He kept adiary of his travels by yak and camel through a remote region still largely unknown today. Anintellectual as well as an adventurer, he chronicles his expedition through Sinkiang,Altai-Mongolia and Tibet from 1924 to 1928 in twelve exciting chapters detailing his encountersalong the parched byways of Central Asia. With a special interest in geographical mysteries andarcane and mystical arts, he searches for the hidden cities of Shambala and Agartha. Roerich'soriginal drawings, as well as reproductions of his inspiring paintings illustrate this unique travelbook. ... Read more

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The Ordos Plateau of China is an account of regional human-environmental history of the Ordos Plateau, a dryland region inhabited by Chinese farmers and Mongolian shepherds. It surveys environmental change during 1949-92, examines such societal factors as government policy, resource use institutions, economics, population, and cultural attitudes and beliefs, and investigates how these factors have contributed to environmental change in the Ordos Plateau. The Ordos Plateau of China is among a few books written on China's regional human-environmental issues by a Chinese- and US-trained geographer in recent years. UNU Series on Critical Environmental Regions ... Read more

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Traces the life of the chief of the small Mongol tribe who established a vast empire from Peking to the Black Sea in the twelfth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A great introduction to this little known emperor
My children and I found this book fascinating and full of factual information.There is little written at this level about this man who had such an influence in connecting the west with the east.Reading this interesting and detailed overview will make you want to read more.I couldn't disagree more with the negative editorial review.

Excellent Historical Adventure About Genghis Khan
This is an outstanding book that I highly recommend to anyone who wants to read more then the plain dry history texts.Harold Lamb wrote a novel that is contextually accurate and describes events of the period.Of course, the conversations and detailed actions of the individuals are simply speculation, but the style in which they are written is lively and interesting.This is a thoroughly enjoyable book!If the reader has an understanding of the history of this period, and the events that were taking place, then so much the better!! ... Read more