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National Geographic Treasure Seekers The Silk Road
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The Silk Road |
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In the West stood a continent built |
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In the East, towered an empire of |
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For thousands of years |
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these two civilizations had thrived |
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Two men stepped into the void. |
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Marco Polo was lured by the promise |
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Sven Hedin by a thirst for adventure |
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Confronted by the most |
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they went in search of the impossible |
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a lasting connection |
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Along the old Silk Road. |
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Italy, 1296 A.D. |
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A Venetian trader languishes in jail |
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His name is Marco Polo |
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the victim of an ongoing conflict |
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Polo is afraid he will die here |
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and he's come up with |
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A book about his life and his travels. |
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An incredible story that might allow |
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"There has been no man, |
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Mongol or Indian, |
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who has known or explored |
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and its great wonders as have I, |
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He writes about his incredible trek |
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to Cathay, modern day China: a magical |
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A land so wealthy that its ruler could |
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A civilization so advanced they could |
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A culture so generous that husbands |
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Marco Polo's book was a success. |
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His journey to Cathay |
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has become one of the most famous |
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But it is full of such incredible |
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and intrigue that it leaves everyone |
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Could it possibly be true? |
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Or is Polo's adventure |
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actually a masterpiece |
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In the first century B.C., |
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imperial Rome dominated the west, |
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A world apart, these two superpowers |
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The seductive beauty of |
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It all began in Mesopotamia. 53 B.C. |
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Roman legions were on the brink of |
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against the Parthian army. |
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Unexpectedly, |
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the Parthians unfurled huge banners |
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The Roman army had never seen anything |
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leaving 20,000 dead |
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Fear turned to fascination |
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and silk quickly became |
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The Chinese fabric was soon |
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Traders saw their chance. |
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Caravans braved the 5000 miles |
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Cities sprung up in the deserts |
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Along with the goods flowed ideas |
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that revolutionized |
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Buddhism and Islam spread eastwards. |
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Printing and papermaking went West. |
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The Silk Road pioneering connection |
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People have a mental vision |
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a huge long highway |
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and that one person took some silk |
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And in fact |
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Merchants would take the goods |
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and then another group of merchants |
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So I think the Silk Road |
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I think the most important things are |
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For nearly a thousand years |
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In the 10th century, |
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and it was no longer safe |
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In the chaos, |
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The desert cities that depended on |
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As shifting sands buried their memory, |
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the link between |
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350 years later, in 1254, |
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a young boy named Marco Polo |
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Marco grew up a forgotten orphan |
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Marco Polo did not have a conventional |
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His father left before he was born |
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and his mother died |
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But actually that |
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provided him with certain skills |
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that would turn out to be |
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He learned to get along with |
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One day Marco's world was turned |
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A stranger walked into his life. |
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It was his father. |
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It was the first time |
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And the boy listened in awe as his |
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He said he had made |
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to a magical land in the East. |
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He talked about a foreign people |
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and their massive empire, |
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And explained how he had just |
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to personally visit its capital |
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Young Marco was stunned. |
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China, in the 13th Century |
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is probably the most foreign place |
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maybe like the South Pole |
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That you can go |
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Not many people go. |
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There are incredible |
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Marco's father also claimed |
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to have risen to favor with |
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He insisted he was sitting |
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For with the Khan's favor, |
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he would have prime access to |
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If the Polos could make it |
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they'd be able to reestablish |
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between two very |
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The sudden reappearance of his father |
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to think about perhaps joining him |
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Going to China for Marco Polo |
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would be the most extraordinary |
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They probably don't suspect they're |
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But I think there's enough talk |
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what's now Turkey or what's now Iran |
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Marco imagined his journey |
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the wealth of Cathay, |
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Some would say that an imaginary |
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According to his story, Marco Polo |
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a merchant in search of |
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His 5000 mile overland journey took |
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the great bazaars of the Middle East |
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where the trading energy of |
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Marco was encouraged by what he saw. |
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"Traveling merchants |
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For there is much gold and silk |
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Camping out in the open at night, |
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Anybody who traveled on the Silk Roads |
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had to be really quite |
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Many people just didn't make it, |
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in part because of banditry |
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One night in Persia, |
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Many of his caravan were killed. |
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Marco was lucky to get away |
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It's not as simple as taking a plane |
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This was a long, long |
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After a grueling trek through |
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Polo describes his confrontation |
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the infamous mountain range |
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4000 meters above sea level, |
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altitude and frostbite were |
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"There are innumerable wolves |
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are stacked by the roadside |
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to serve as landmarks to travelers |
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Polo sought refuge in local villages. |
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"I give you my word that |
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to seek hospitality |
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The host bids his wife do everything |
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The women are beautiful, |
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Marco Polo's description of |
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of their being so subservient fits in |
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throughout the ages of eastern women |
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having some sort of exotic |
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There's an attempt to make the east |
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According to his story, |
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the most forbidding obstacle |
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With 1000 foot high dunes |
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the Taklamakan is 600 miles of hell. |
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The Chinese call it |
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The temperature of the desert is formidable. |
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In the summer, the temperature |
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There's no water, in the desert. |
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There's no wells. |
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So you're walking through |
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and it's very difficult to think that |
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It is here that Polo and his story |
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Did Polo really make it |
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Or is the story of his arrival |
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Marco Polo has a format |
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He goes from city to city. |
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He tells you where he is |
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from one point to the next. |
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When he goes to visit the Mongol |
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He no longer tells you |
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where he is in north China |
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So the effect when you're reading it |
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Did he go, how did he go, |
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And the only conclusion |
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that somebody told him about it |
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This was a custom of travel writing |
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You'd hear something and you'd claim |
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and had actually witnessed the events |
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This has been taken by some scholars |
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to mean that he probably didn't travel |
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That is taking things |
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Marco Polo wrote about his travels |
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That obviously is going to affect |
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He's at a difficult time in his life |
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so he's going to emphasize |
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rather than the ordinary elements |
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From his squalid cell in Italy, |
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Marco wrote about the luxurious court |
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which he supposedly reached in 1275. |
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He told how in Shengdu, |
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the trials of his 4 year journey |
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"The Khan's palace is the largest |
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The roof is ablaze with every color |
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it glitters like crystals and sparkles |
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The hall is so vast that |
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The descriptions that Marco Polo |
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descriptions of Xanadu for example, |
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dovetail with what we know of |
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The city was excavated |
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and they found that the placement of |
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and the style of the buildings |
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was exactly the way Marco Polo |
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The Venetian trader |
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by the mighty Yangtze river. |
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"It is the greatest river |
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More boats loaded with more dear |
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by this river than by all the rivers |
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Marco could not have asked for more. |
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He had made it safely to China. |
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He had discovered a land of |
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His quest to establish a lucrative |
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was very much on course. |
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It is here, |
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that Marco's account |
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He says that he sees a fish that's a |
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He describes how the animals bow |
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Like the tigers came out |
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So you know it's just things that |
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The bizarre sections in Marco Polo |
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and strange looking fish, |
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The conventions of travel writing |
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the kind of mythologizing and |
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Equally controversial is |
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the total absence of any reference |
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that would have amazed a European |
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Marco Polo does not mention certain |
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such as calligraphy, tea, bound feet |
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because Marco Polo lived |
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He dealt with Kublai Khan and the |
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He didn't deal with the Chinese. |
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So just because he didn't mention |
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doesn't mean that |
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Marco Polo's defenders |
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which could not have been |
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"Throughout the province of Cathay |
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dug from the mountains which burn |
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Marco Polo was the first European |
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a treasure that transformed the world. |
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Marco Polo was definitely in China. |
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I am absolutely convinced of it because |
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his descriptions of the Mongols: |
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Mongol customs, Mongol dress, |
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And in addition he describes |
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The assassination of |
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Now who would have known about that |
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The reason I don't think Marco Polo |
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there are basic factual inaccuracies |
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He says he's the governor of a town |
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and we have a list of governors |
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and he's not on the list. |
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And the second is he says he's |
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and we know the battle took place in |
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Perhaps the secret to the mystery of |
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lies in his prison cell in Italy. |
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Marco did not write the book himself. |
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He dictated it, |
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to his cellmate, Rustichello |
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who happened to be a writer |
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Rustichello was a man |
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and not actual descriptions of events. |
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And so obviously the fact that |
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set down the work may have added some |
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and mythical qualities to the work |
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The only verifiable piece of evidence |
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his will reveals that |
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Yet his nickname"Il Milione" |
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mockingly referred to the size of |
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Marco was defiant till the end. |
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When asked by his friends |
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whether he had really been |
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"I have only told you half of |
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Marco Polo died |
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yet his influence on the history |
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His controversial book became the |
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The inspiration for |
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historic discovery |
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The greatest impact Marco Polo has |
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that you can go to exotic places |
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When you think about it nobody |
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So he becomes the first famous |
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Whether Marco Polo did make it China |
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His dream of pioneering |
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between East and West |
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China again dissolved into civil war, |
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The tantalizing promise of |
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once again faded into the past |
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600 years later, an ambitious explorer |
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Unlike Polo, Sven Hedin was not |
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He was after something |
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Stockholm, Sweden. 1949. |
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Sven Hedin, the 84 year old explorer, |
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In his prime he heroically explored |
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He discovered lost cities |
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bringing to life |
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Hedin, the ambitious adventurer, |
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He was the Neil Armstrong of his day. |
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You know, Inner Asia was the moon. |
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And he went. |
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He was very famous, |
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But his passion for the spotlight |
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After the war, Sven Hedin was |
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He was a persona non grata. |
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Nobody wanted to touch him |
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Sven Hedin was really a person |
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In his memoir, Sven Hedin has |
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Would he exorcise the demons |
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Or would he die a forgotten man? |
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April 24th, 1880. |
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15 year old Sven watches in awe as |
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Stockholm harbor is a riot of |
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Adolf Nordenskiold, |
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the first person to sail around |
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Together with his family |
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overlooking the harbor of Stockholm, |
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from where he and thousands |
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watched the return of the ship. |
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A great national hero was created |
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and Sven Hedin really wanted |
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This dream of fame and adventure |
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It was in Berlin, |
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that Hedin developed his lifelong |
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At the turn of the 20th century, |
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Central Asia was one of |
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the distant prize of aspiring |
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For it was the center of |
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a race between Britain, |
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to expand their empires in the region. |
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With the eyes of the world focused on |
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it was the perfect stage |
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to make his name as an explorer. |
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At its heart, was a massive sea |
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When Hedin decided on becoming |
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Explorers should climb |
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and they should cross |
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That's what an explorer should do. |
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So he found this Taklamakan |
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no one ever had crossed, |
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He wanted to be the first, |
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where no man ever walked before. |
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Hedin was sure that beneath |
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lay ancient cities of |
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which had been lost to the world |
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If only he could discover |
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Hedin believed his path to fame |
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In 1893, Hedin obtained funding |
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to explore the uncharted extremes |
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But his imminent departure |
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Hedin was leaving behind the woman |
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Mille Bruman was beautiful |
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Like Hedin, she was a romantic. |
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He adored her. |
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"She was magnificent in her youth, |
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She was blonde and had eyes of |
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In Sven's mind, there was no doubt |
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Kashi, modern day China. |
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Once known as Kashgar, a key market |
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Sven Hedin arrived here in 1894, |
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Kashi was the obvious base |
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for it stood on the edge |
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the desert Hedin had come to explore. |
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With thousand foot sand dunes |
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the desert is one of the most |
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Hedin began to make |
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for an expedition into the desert, |
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When he was sitting there |
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came a letter from home |
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Mille Maria Bruman, was going to |
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And his whole world shattered. |
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And he writes about his desperation |
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He would do this absolutely |
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He would just venture into the desert |
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Hedin was heartbroken. |
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Distraught and totally ill equipped, |
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he set off on a suicidal quest |
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He walked through the streets |
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and they cheered him and they cried |
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and they said you will go |
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and you will never come out alive. |
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And he walked through the streets |
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and people said his camels |
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They'll not make it, he'll not |
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They walked out to the edge of |
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"One thousand heavy steps |
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Not one backwards was my motto." |
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Stubborn and defiant, |
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15 days into the trip, |
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Hedin realized his guides |
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The expedition was now in the middle |
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with only two days of water left. |
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Should they turn back? |
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Or look for an oasis? |
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Hedin, as ever, chose to push on. |
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Straight into the Karaburan |
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an infamous storm that whips the sand |
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His expedition was now lost |
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The name 'Taklamakan' |
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"you go in but you do not come out." |
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By 9 o'clock in the morning |
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loading your camels to get ready |
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you could have drunk the water |
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let alone keep it and have |
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to try and cover a pitiful |
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Because the nature |
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you can't go in a straight line |
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Then the sand just gets into |
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your nose, your eyes, |
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And your lips were split. |
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Your tongue was swollen and sticking |
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Over the course of the next 5 days, |
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died from dehydration, |
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Finally Hedin and a local guide, |
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stumbled across footsteps |
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"Why should I die, |
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in the embraces of this deceitful |
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I will conquer the desert |
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and all my people will see it |
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But the footsteps were their own. |
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They had walked in a circle. |
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The guide gave up, leaving Hedin alone |
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He struggled on. |
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After 6 days without water, |
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Luck and unbelievable perseverance |
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His whole life was characterized by |
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to prove that he was not a failure. |
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The failure that he had become |
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Six months after his first disaster, |
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More determined than ever |
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One night, a local brought Hedin |
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some woodcarvings he had found |
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Mysterious objects which might lead |
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buried beneath the sand. |
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"In spite of my misfortunes |
| 00:37:55 |
I was again drawn irresistibly |
| 00:37:59 |
under the eternal sand." |
| 00:38:05 |
This expedition was different. |
| 00:38:10 |
The water bottles were full, |
| 00:38:20 |
After a 5 day trek |
| 00:38:23 |
Hedin finally came across |
| 00:38:29 |
He stopped and looked for |
| 00:38:36 |
The evidence was undeniable. |
| 00:38:41 |
He had found Dandanuilik, |
| 00:38:51 |
"No explorer had an inkling, |
| 00:38:55 |
of the existence of this ancient city. |
| 00:39:00 |
Here I stand, like the prince |
| 00:39:04 |
having wakened to new life a city |
| 00:39:07 |
which has slumbered for |
| 00:39:14 |
Hedin's discovery was just |
| 00:39:19 |
It started one of the greatest |
| 00:39:28 |
Hedin's main contribution |
| 00:39:31 |
he starts the race to discover |
| 00:39:35 |
He is never the person who figures out |
| 00:39:37 |
the historical significance |
| 00:39:40 |
But, he's the person |
| 00:39:43 |
and figure those things out. |
| 00:39:48 |
Using Hedin's pioneering maps, |
| 00:39:51 |
like Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot |
| 00:39:54 |
raced desperately to find other |
| 00:40:01 |
For these Europeans, it was much |
| 00:40:08 |
It was a battle to appropriate |
| 00:40:11 |
they hoped to control in the future. |
| 00:40:17 |
The Silk Road, a forgotten ideal, |
| 00:40:26 |
Despite his success, |
| 00:40:32 |
The proud Swede wrote her a letter, |
| 00:40:35 |
wishing her happiness |
| 00:40:40 |
She was at that time |
| 00:40:43 |
and she had decided to |
| 00:40:46 |
because the one she really loved |
| 00:40:50 |
So she wrote this letter to |
| 00:40:52 |
She went to the post office |
| 00:40:56 |
and the postman says oh here's |
| 00:41:03 |
And she got this message |
| 00:41:05 |
that he wanted her to be happy |
| 00:41:10 |
And she thought that now |
| 00:41:17 |
So she got married |
| 00:41:28 |
Wounded and defiant, Hedin pushed |
| 00:41:41 |
Over the next 10 years, |
| 00:41:44 |
driven man set out |
| 00:41:54 |
He traveled more than a third |
| 00:41:59 |
mapping an area twice the breadth |
| 00:42:06 |
He was the first to explore the mighty |
| 00:42:12 |
the first to trace the source |
| 00:42:21 |
I think that the ideal of Sven Hedin |
| 00:42:27 |
He said that the best thing with |
| 00:42:30 |
A real man was a lonely man. |
| 00:42:34 |
His ideal was the lonely leader |
| 00:42:39 |
and did great things for the nation, |
| 00:42:46 |
As he put Central Asia and the |
| 00:42:50 |
Hedin became one of the most |
| 00:43:03 |
On January 17th 1909, |
| 00:43:12 |
Sven's childhood dream had come true. |
| 00:43:18 |
Thousands of Swedes were there |
| 00:43:20 |
just as they were for Nordenskiold, |
| 00:43:28 |
But it still wasn't enough. |
| 00:43:33 |
"The joy I felt to be reunited |
| 00:43:38 |
and to be greeted by |
| 00:43:42 |
because she was not there |
| 00:43:48 |
Alone in his moment of triumph, |
| 00:43:50 |
Hedin craved adulation |
| 00:43:56 |
It was a path that would ultimately |
| 00:44:07 |
In 1914, Europe slipped |
| 00:44:12 |
As the conflict intensified, |
| 00:44:17 |
as a war correspondent |
| 00:44:25 |
There are many reasons why Sven Hedin |
| 00:44:31 |
Germany, the scientific community, |
| 00:44:35 |
He came from a background |
| 00:44:38 |
where one always were |
| 00:44:40 |
so that was a natural thing. |
| 00:44:42 |
But the really decisive factor |
| 00:44:51 |
Like many Swedes, Hedin believed that |
| 00:44:55 |
capable of protecting Sweden |
| 00:45:04 |
When Germany lost the war, |
| 00:45:08 |
retracted the honors |
| 00:45:13 |
Hedin was on the wrong side. |
| 00:45:17 |
He would defiantly stay there |
| 00:45:25 |
Unperturbed, the explorer |
| 00:45:28 |
about his previous expeditions. |
| 00:45:31 |
In 1920, Mille got back |
| 00:45:36 |
They had had some meetings. |
| 00:45:38 |
She had children and she, |
| 00:45:43 |
That she could never forget, |
| 00:45:46 |
He was the love of her life, |
| 00:45:56 |
And he wrote back that you know |
| 00:46:01 |
Never turn back; 1,000 heavy steps |
| 00:46:07 |
but not one backwards. |
| 00:46:17 |
Hedin returned to Central Asia: |
| 00:46:19 |
the region he now |
| 00:46:25 |
"She has held me captive |
| 00:46:29 |
and out of jealousy would not |
| 00:46:34 |
And I have been faithful to her, |
| 00:46:43 |
Hedin's new project was to draw up |
| 00:46:49 |
a massive motorway that would run |
| 00:46:55 |
all the way to Vienna. |
| 00:47:08 |
Hedin's pioneering maps were the basis |
| 00:47:11 |
that today links Asia with Europe. |
| 00:47:17 |
"This highway should unite |
| 00:47:22 |
two cultures, |
| 00:47:29 |
Sven Hedin, the man who had rediscovered |
| 00:47:34 |
had now given it a new lease of life. |
| 00:47:39 |
The world famous explorer now |
| 00:47:44 |
on a highly controversial cause. |
| 00:47:48 |
Hedin's achievements had attracted |
| 00:47:53 |
One was Adolf Hitler. |
| 00:47:57 |
There was a special relation between |
| 00:48:01 |
who had only had two heroes in his |
| 00:48:07 |
It was Sven Hedin's stories |
| 00:48:09 |
that had kind of awakened |
| 00:48:14 |
So when they met in the '30s |
| 00:48:19 |
Hitler wanted to talk about all the |
| 00:48:29 |
Hedin, the attention seeker, |
| 00:48:34 |
In 1936, he gave the opening speech |
| 00:48:40 |
For Hedin, Germany had always been |
| 00:48:46 |
He would refuse to see that |
| 00:48:48 |
the Third Reich was the cause |
| 00:48:55 |
In 1940, an eye disease that plagued |
| 00:49:00 |
and the explorer went partially blind. |
| 00:49:05 |
A Norwegian resistance fighter |
| 00:49:09 |
to tell him about the torture |
| 00:49:11 |
that he had sustained on the hands |
| 00:49:15 |
And Hedin couldn't believe him |
| 00:49:18 |
because it just didn't fit his image |
| 00:49:23 |
And then the Resistance man told him |
| 00:49:32 |
And he took Sven Hedin's hand |
| 00:49:38 |
And the story goes that Hedin's eyes |
| 00:49:42 |
but still he couldn't believe that |
| 00:49:44 |
a German soldier could do |
| 00:49:50 |
In 1945, when the atrocities of |
| 00:49:55 |
Hedin chose to ignore them. |
| 00:50:02 |
He was always very naively |
| 00:50:07 |
And it's never as glaring as |
| 00:50:13 |
Sven Hedin simply didn't want to see |
| 00:50:22 |
"One thousand heavy steps |
| 00:50:26 |
Not one back." |
| 00:50:31 |
The motto that led Hedin to triumph |
| 00:50:34 |
now led him to disgrace in Europe. |
| 00:50:40 |
An unrepentant Nazi sympathizer, |
| 00:50:47 |
Banished from the world stage, |
| 00:50:49 |
the defiant explorer wrote about |
| 00:50:55 |
Hedin sent a letter to a friend's |
| 00:51:00 |
"I understand that you will speak |
| 00:51:07 |
Greet the deserts and mountains |
| 00:51:11 |
but tell them that I do not long |
| 00:51:19 |
After World War II, |
| 00:51:24 |
When the Communists seized control |
| 00:51:28 |
they severed all links with the West. |
| 00:51:35 |
The Silk Road |
| 00:51:38 |
was once again abandoned. |
| 00:51:45 |
Sven Hedin died in his sleep |
| 00:51:53 |
By his bed was a photo of his beloved |
| 00:52:02 |
"You have been by my side |
