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Alexandria : the quest for the lost city / Edmund Richardson.

For centuries the city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains was a meeting point of East and West. Then it vanished. In 1833 it was discovered in Afghanistan by the unlikeliest person imaginable- Charles Masson, deserter, traveller, pilgrim, doctor, archaeologist, spy, and eventually one of the most respected scholars in Asia, and the greatest of nineteenth-century travellers. On the way into one of history's most extraordinary stories, he would take tea with kings, travel with holy men and become the master of a hundred disguises; he would see things no westerner had glimpsed before and few have glimpsed since. He would spy for the East India Company and be suspected of spying for Russia at the same time, for this was the era of the Great Game, when imperial powers confronted each other in these staggeringly beautiful lands. Masson discovered tens of thousands of pieces of Afghan history, including the 2,000 year old Bimaran golden casket, which has upon it the earliest known face of the Buddha. He would be offered his own kingdom; he would change the world, and the world would destroy him. This is a wild journey through nineteenth-century India and Afghanistan, with impeccably researched storytelling that shows us a world of espionage and dreamers, ne'er-do-wells and opportunists, extreme violence both personal and military, and boundless hope. At the edge of empire, amid the deserts and the mountains, it is the story of an obsession passed down the centuries.

Item Information
Barcode Shelf Location Collection Volume Ref. Branch Status Due Date Res.
C9009906643 939.6 RIC
Adult nonfiction   City Branch . . Available .  
. Catalogue Record 1102196 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 1102196 ItemInfo Top of page .
Catalogue Information
Field name Details
ISBN 9781526603814
9781526603784
Dewey 939.6
Author Richardson, Edmund, 1982- author.
Title Alexandria : the quest for the lost city / Edmund Richardson.
Published London, UK : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.
Physical description vi, 328 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), portraits, map ; 23 cm.
Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary For centuries the city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains was a meeting point of East and West. Then it vanished. In 1833 it was discovered in Afghanistan by the unlikeliest person imaginable- Charles Masson, deserter, traveller, pilgrim, doctor, archaeologist, spy, and eventually one of the most respected scholars in Asia, and the greatest of nineteenth-century travellers. On the way into one of history's most extraordinary stories, he would take tea with kings, travel with holy men and become the master of a hundred disguises; he would see things no westerner had glimpsed before and few have glimpsed since. He would spy for the East India Company and be suspected of spying for Russia at the same time, for this was the era of the Great Game, when imperial powers confronted each other in these staggeringly beautiful lands. Masson discovered tens of thousands of pieces of Afghan history, including the 2,000 year old Bimaran golden casket, which has upon it the earliest known face of the Buddha. He would be offered his own kingdom; he would change the world, and the world would destroy him. This is a wild journey through nineteenth-century India and Afghanistan, with impeccably researched storytelling that shows us a world of espionage and dreamers, ne'er-do-wells and opportunists, extreme violence both personal and military, and boundless hope. At the edge of empire, amid the deserts and the mountains, it is the story of an obsession passed down the centuries.
Subject Masson, Charles, -- 1800-1853
Masson, Charles, -- 1800-1853 -- Travel -- Afghanistan
East India Company -- History -- 19th century
Archaeologists -- Afghanistan
Spies -- Afghanistan
Adventure and adventurers -- Afghanistan
British -- Afghanistan
Espionage -- Afghanistan -- 19th century
Extinct cities -- Afghanistan
Antiquities
Discoveries in geography
Travel
Biographies
History
Kabul (Afghanistan) -- History
Afghanistan -- Antiquities
Afghanistan -- History -- 19th century
India -- History -- 19th century
Afghanistan -- Discovery and exploration -- English
Catalogue Information 1102196 Beginning of record . Catalogue Information 1102196 Top of page .