For five millennia, the peoples and cultures of East and West have met and mingled in Central Asia. For explorers and travellers it is a promised land, a region of white spaces on the map, forgotten cities and archaeological treasures. Christoph Baumer has spent a lifetime travelling through the countries of Central Asia, making extraordinary discoveries along the way. "Traces in the Desert" follows in his intrepid footsteps as he finds evidence of Indo-Europeans in the steppes of Western Mongolia, discovers lost oasis cities in the Taklamakan and unearths art treasures in Tibet. He embarks on a quest to find Genghis Khan's long-lost tomb and has numerous, occasionally hair-raising, encounters with shamans, Iranian politicians and armed Tibetan bandits. Enlightening and full of adventure, "Traces in the Desert" uniquely illuminates the hidden parts of Central Asia that have not just disappeared beneath the shifting sands, but also from the horizon of our memory.

Dr Christoph Baumer is a leading explorer of Central Asia and Tibet. His many expeditions in these regions have yielded important discoveries in archaeology and art history. As the leader of four international expeditions into the Taklamakan desert he rediscovered the lost city of Dandan Oilik and found unknown Buddhist murals revealing ancient inscriptions. Not since Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin has a foreigner explored this region as extensively. A Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Explorer's Club, Baumer is internationally recognised through his books, articles and appearances in documentary films and on radio. He is the author of many books, including 'Southern Silk Road', 'Eastern Tibet' and 'Church of the East' - a runner up BRISMES winner (also I.B.Tauris).