HEDIN, Sven Unknown Asia. In the sands of Asia. Translated from the Swedish by Charles Rabot. Accompanied by 8 maps and photographic reproductions by the author [- Vers la ville interdite [...]. Book containing 4 maps and numerous illustrations based on photographs taken by the author]. Paris F. Juven (1903-1904) 2 vols, 8vo (1st vol.: sl. spotting on title and very occ. in the rest of the vol.). Publ. pictorial green cloth, a.e.g. (soiled). First French translation by the geographer Charles Rabot (1856-1944) published in the same year as the first edition in Swedish. Both are travel accounts about Asia: the 1st, from Stockholm to the Tarim Basin (through the Taklamakan Desert, Gobi, Lop Nor, etc.), the 2nd is entirely devoted to Tibet (with small incursions in India). Both volumes are illustrated with reproductions of photos by the author himself (40 full-pp. in each vol., 2 title-vignettes) and with one in-text map in each vol. and 3 full-page maps in vol. II (vol. I has its 2 maps missing). The Swedish topographer and explorer Hedin (1865-1952) made the Transhimalaya known in the West and located sources of the Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej Rivers. He also mapped lake Lop Nor, the Great Wall of China in the deserts of the Tarim Basin, etc.