1 00:00:11,044 --> 00:00:12,136 The Silk Road 2 00:00:12,712 --> 00:00:18,514 In the West stood a continent built on lofty ideals and grand ambition. 3 00:00:19,586 --> 00:00:24,546 In the East, towered an empire of unimaginable size and splendor. 4 00:00:27,193 --> 00:00:28,717 For thousands of years 5 00:00:29,029 --> 00:00:33,227 these two civilizations had thrived in seeming isolation. 6 00:00:38,838 --> 00:00:40,965 Two men stepped into the void. 7 00:00:42,075 --> 00:00:47,138 Marco Polo was lured by the promise of unprecedented wealth. 8 00:00:47,847 --> 00:00:53,012 Sven Hedin by a thirst for adventure and the trappings of world fame. 9 00:00:55,021 --> 00:00:58,013 Confronted by the most daunting terrain on earth, 10 00:00:58,258 --> 00:01:00,920 they went in search of the impossible 11 00:01:01,961 --> 00:01:06,022 a lasting connection between East and West 12 00:01:06,266 --> 00:01:08,826 Along the old Silk Road. 13 00:01:49,075 --> 00:01:51,509 ltaly, 1296 A.D. 14 00:01:53,746 --> 00:01:58,479 A Venetian trader languishes in jail and wonders if he will ever get out. 15 00:02:00,086 --> 00:02:05,285 His name is Marco Polo and he's now a prisoner of war 16 00:02:05,758 --> 00:02:09,854 the victim of an ongoing conflict between Genoa and his native Venice. 17 00:02:12,532 --> 00:02:15,763 Polo is afraid he will die here in jail 18 00:02:17,036 --> 00:02:20,335 and he's come up with an amazing strategy for survival. 19 00:02:23,042 --> 00:02:25,909 A book about his life and his travels. 20 00:02:28,381 --> 00:02:33,819 An incredible story that might allow his name to live on forever. 21 00:02:39,125 --> 00:02:42,993 ''There has been no man, Christian or pagan, 22 00:02:43,696 --> 00:02:48,793 Mongol or lndian, or of any race whatsoever, 23 00:02:49,602 --> 00:02:52,332 who has known or explored so much of the world 24 00:02:52,572 --> 00:02:58,272 and its great wonders as have I, Marco Polo.'' 25 00:03:01,381 --> 00:03:05,750 He writes about his incredible trek across lethal mountains and deserts... 26 00:03:06,953 --> 00:03:12,983 to Cathay, modern day China: a magical country at the end of the earth. 27 00:03:14,227 --> 00:03:20,097 A land so wealthy that its ruler could entertain 40,000 guests at a time. 28 00:03:21,034 --> 00:03:26,233 A civilization so advanced they could predict the movement of the heavens. 29 00:03:27,574 --> 00:03:33,012 A culture so generous that husbands even shared their wives with strangers. 30 00:03:39,219 --> 00:03:42,450 Marco Polo's book was a success. 31 00:03:42,956 --> 00:03:44,355 His journey to Cathay 32 00:03:44,591 --> 00:03:48,493 has become one of the most famous adventure stories ever written. 33 00:03:49,028 --> 00:03:52,156 But it is full of such incredible tales of discovery 34 00:03:52,398 --> 00:03:57,131 and intrigue that it leaves everyone wondering the same thing: 35 00:03:58,805 --> 00:04:02,104 Could it possibly be true? 36 00:04:02,342 --> 00:04:05,402 Or is Polo's adventure along the old Silk Road 37 00:04:05,645 --> 00:04:09,274 actually a masterpiece of the imagination? 38 00:04:13,419 --> 00:04:14,977 In the first century B.C., 39 00:04:15,321 --> 00:04:20,054 imperial Rome dominated the west, Han China the east. 40 00:04:20,593 --> 00:04:25,690 A world apart, these two superpowers knew little of each other's existence. 41 00:04:28,368 --> 00:04:32,737 The seductive beauty of one substance drew them closer. 42 00:04:34,540 --> 00:04:38,499 It all began in Mesopotamia. 53 B.C. 43 00:04:43,149 --> 00:04:46,243 Roman legions were on the brink of a historic victory 44 00:04:46,486 --> 00:04:48,044 against the Parthian army. 45 00:04:51,557 --> 00:04:52,455 Unexpectedly, 46 00:04:52,692 --> 00:04:58,028 the Parthians unfurled huge banners of a magical translucent material. 47 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:05,463 The Roman army had never seen anything like it, and fled in confusion 48 00:05:05,938 --> 00:05:09,066 leaving 20,000 dead on the battlefield. 49 00:05:20,353 --> 00:05:22,480 Fear turned to fascination 50 00:05:22,822 --> 00:05:26,553 and silk quickly became the rage in ancient Rome. 51 00:05:28,227 --> 00:05:31,628 The Chinese fabric was soon worth its weight in gold. 52 00:05:34,133 --> 00:05:36,260 Traders saw their chance. 53 00:05:38,638 --> 00:05:43,166 Caravans braved the 5000 miles separating China and Rome. 54 00:05:44,911 --> 00:05:49,712 Cities sprung up in the deserts and plains to service the traders. 55 00:05:50,683 --> 00:05:52,708 Along with the goods flowed ideas 56 00:05:52,952 --> 00:05:55,921 that revolutionized the cultures along the way. 57 00:05:56,622 --> 00:05:59,284 Buddhism and lslam spread eastwards. 58 00:05:59,959 --> 00:06:02,894 Printing and papermaking went West. 59 00:06:03,463 --> 00:06:08,765 The Silk Roada pioneering connection between East and Westwas established. 60 00:06:12,171 --> 00:06:14,969 People have a mental vision that the Silk Road is like l95, 61 00:06:15,208 --> 00:06:16,436 a huge long highway 62 00:06:16,676 --> 00:06:20,908 and that one person took some silk from one end all the way to the other. 63 00:06:21,147 --> 00:06:23,047 And in fact that almost never happened. 64 00:06:24,617 --> 00:06:27,484 Merchants would take the goods from one oasis to another 65 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:30,382 and then another group of merchants would take them on. 66 00:06:30,623 --> 00:06:31,612 So I think the Silk Road is not the road. 67 00:06:31,858 --> 00:06:36,693 I think the most important things are those communities along the Silk Road. 68 00:06:39,499 --> 00:06:43,435 For nearly a thousand years these communities thrived. 69 00:06:44,737 --> 00:06:48,605 In the 10th century, China collapsed in civil war, 70 00:06:48,841 --> 00:06:51,571 and it was no longer safe to travel in the East. 71 00:06:54,347 --> 00:06:58,113 In the chaos, the Silk Road fell silent. 72 00:07:01,354 --> 00:07:05,916 The desert cities that depended on its traffic were abandoned. 73 00:07:07,660 --> 00:07:10,128 As shifting sands buried their memory, 74 00:07:10,363 --> 00:07:13,355 the link between East and West was broken. 75 00:07:18,538 --> 00:07:21,564 350 years later, in 1254, 76 00:07:21,808 --> 00:07:26,370 a young boy named Marco Polo was born in Venice, ltaly. 77 00:07:31,350 --> 00:07:35,946 Marco grew up a forgotten orphan on the docks and canals of the city. 78 00:07:40,493 --> 00:07:44,827 Marco Polo did not have a conventional and happy childhood. 79 00:07:45,064 --> 00:07:47,259 His father left before he was born 80 00:07:47,500 --> 00:07:50,526 and his mother died when he was relatively young. 81 00:07:50,770 --> 00:07:53,898 But actually that relatively unhappy childhood 82 00:07:54,140 --> 00:07:56,335 provided him with certain skills 83 00:07:56,576 --> 00:08:00,672 that would turn out to be very important for him on his travels. 84 00:08:00,913 --> 00:08:04,781 He learned to get along with a wide variety of peoples. 85 00:08:07,553 --> 00:08:11,512 One day Marco's world was turned upside down. 86 00:08:14,260 --> 00:08:16,592 A stranger walked into his life. 87 00:08:19,232 --> 00:08:20,665 It was his father. 88 00:08:23,402 --> 00:08:26,633 It was the first time the two had ever met. 89 00:08:28,574 --> 00:08:34,137 And the boy listened in awe as his father explained his 14year absence. 90 00:08:35,815 --> 00:08:38,181 He said he had made an incredible overland journey 91 00:08:38,417 --> 00:08:40,783 to a magical land in the East. 92 00:08:43,222 --> 00:08:46,089 He talked about a foreign people the Mongols 93 00:08:46,325 --> 00:08:50,091 and their massive empire, the biggest the world had ever seen. 94 00:08:52,231 --> 00:08:54,665 And explained how he had just risked his life 95 00:08:54,901 --> 00:09:00,100 to personally visit its capital in Cathay, modernday China. 96 00:09:03,476 --> 00:09:05,569 Young Marco was stunned. 97 00:09:08,781 --> 00:09:10,442 China, in the 13th Century to a Venetian, 98 00:09:10,683 --> 00:09:13,174 is probably the most foreign place that there is, 99 00:09:14,420 --> 00:09:17,355 maybe like the South Pole is to us today. 100 00:09:17,590 --> 00:09:20,525 That you can go but it's a huge journey. 101 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:22,352 Not many people go. 102 00:09:23,396 --> 00:09:26,490 There are incredible logistical difficulties. 103 00:09:30,603 --> 00:09:32,298 Marco's father also claimed 104 00:09:32,538 --> 00:09:36,770 to have risen to favor with Kublai Khan, the new Mongol king. 105 00:09:37,009 --> 00:09:40,069 He insisted he was sitting on a gold mine. 106 00:09:40,913 --> 00:09:42,471 For with the Khan's favor, 107 00:09:42,715 --> 00:09:46,082 he would have prime access to all the treasures of the East. 108 00:09:48,287 --> 00:09:51,256 If the Polos could make it to China and back again, 109 00:09:51,490 --> 00:09:54,084 they'd be able to reestablish overland trade links 110 00:09:54,327 --> 00:09:57,353 between two very wealthy civilizations. 111 00:09:59,498 --> 00:10:02,831 The sudden reappearance of his father must have stimulated him 112 00:10:03,069 --> 00:10:06,527 to think about perhaps joining him on a travel of his own. 113 00:10:06,872 --> 00:10:08,863 Going to China for Marco Polo 114 00:10:09,108 --> 00:10:12,805 would be the most extraordinary adventure of his entire life. 115 00:10:13,045 --> 00:10:14,945 They probably don't suspect they're going to get all the way to China. 116 00:10:15,181 --> 00:10:19,049 But I think there's enough talk at the time about modern, 117 00:10:19,285 --> 00:10:23,915 what's now Turkey or what's now lran that he would have been very excited. 118 00:10:26,325 --> 00:10:28,816 Marco imagined his journey to the east 119 00:10:29,061 --> 00:10:32,462 the wealth of Cathay, the dangers ahead. 120 00:10:35,501 --> 00:10:40,700 Some would say that an imaginary journey is all that he ever took. 121 00:10:54,887 --> 00:11:01,122 According to his story, Marco Polo set off for China in 127 1 A.D. 122 00:11:03,129 --> 00:11:06,565 a merchant in search of the world's wealthiest market. 123 00:11:09,935 --> 00:11:17,501 His 5000 mile overland journey took him through Tabriz, Baghdad, Hormuz 124 00:11:17,777 --> 00:11:20,075 the great bazaars of the Middle East 125 00:11:20,312 --> 00:11:24,146 where the trading energy of the old Silk Road is still alive. 126 00:11:25,618 --> 00:11:28,485 Marco was encouraged by what he saw. 127 00:11:31,824 --> 00:11:34,793 ''Travelling merchants can make very good money. 128 00:11:35,027 --> 00:11:39,555 For there is much gold and silk cloth of great value.'' 129 00:11:42,968 --> 00:11:47,928 Camping out in the open at night, Marco was careful to protect his profits. 130 00:11:49,141 --> 00:11:51,075 Anybody who traveled on the Silk Roads 131 00:11:51,310 --> 00:11:54,643 had to be really quite brave and courageous. 132 00:11:55,081 --> 00:11:56,776 Many people just didn't make it, 133 00:11:57,016 --> 00:12:01,043 in part because of banditry all along the route. 134 00:12:01,987 --> 00:12:05,946 One night in Persia, Polo claims to have been robbed. 135 00:12:07,660 --> 00:12:10,026 Many of his caravan were killed. 136 00:12:10,596 --> 00:12:13,724 Marco was lucky to get away with his life. 137 00:12:16,102 --> 00:12:22,598 It's not as simple as taking a plane in Venice and hopping over to Beijing. 138 00:12:22,842 --> 00:12:26,107 This was a long, long and demanding journey. 139 00:12:29,882 --> 00:12:33,818 After a grueling trek through modern day lran and Afghanistan, 140 00:12:34,053 --> 00:12:37,614 Polo describes his confrontation with the Pamirs, 141 00:12:38,657 --> 00:12:42,821 the infamous mountain range that separates East and West. 142 00:12:49,068 --> 00:12:51,366 4000 meters above sea level, 143 00:12:51,604 --> 00:12:55,563 altitude and frostbite were the least of Polo's problems. 144 00:13:12,391 --> 00:13:17,454 ''There are innumerable wolves and the bones of their kill 145 00:13:17,696 --> 00:13:19,391 are stacked by the roadside 146 00:13:19,632 --> 00:13:24,035 to serve as landmarks to travelers in the bleak winter.'' 147 00:13:32,278 --> 00:13:35,213 Polo sought refuge in local villages. 148 00:13:39,251 --> 00:13:43,119 ''l give you my word that if a stranger comes to a house here 149 00:13:43,355 --> 00:13:47,883 to seek hospitality he receives a very warm welcome. 150 00:13:51,397 --> 00:13:55,766 The host bids his wife do everything that the guest wishes. 151 00:13:56,602 --> 00:14:01,335 The women are beautiful, vivacious and always ready to please.'' 152 00:14:03,309 --> 00:14:09,305 Marco Polo's description of these enticing beauties of the East, 153 00:14:09,548 --> 00:14:14,417 of their being so subservient fits in with a pattern that has continued 154 00:14:14,653 --> 00:14:17,554 throughout the ages of eastern women 155 00:14:17,790 --> 00:14:21,783 having some sort of exotic and erotic appeal. 156 00:14:22,161 --> 00:14:26,188 There's an attempt to make the east more exotic than it really is. 157 00:14:28,601 --> 00:14:33,334 According to his story, Polo now entered the Taklamakan desert 158 00:14:35,307 --> 00:14:39,107 the most forbidding obstacle along the old Silk Road. 159 00:14:42,514 --> 00:14:46,746 With 1000foothigh dunes and swirling sandstorms, 160 00:14:46,986 --> 00:14:51,252 the Taklamakan is 600 miles of hell. 161 00:14:54,126 --> 00:14:57,061 The Chinese call it the desert of death. 162 00:14:57,997 --> 00:15:00,397 The temperature of the desert is formidable. 163 00:15:00,633 --> 00:15:04,626 In the summer, the temperature can reach up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. 164 00:15:07,172 --> 00:15:08,867 There's no water, in the desert. 165 00:15:11,343 --> 00:15:12,935 There's no wells. 166 00:15:15,314 --> 00:15:18,112 So you're walking through a sea of sand 167 00:15:18,350 --> 00:15:22,184 and it's very difficult to think that you might come out the other end. 168 00:15:25,157 --> 00:15:29,753 It is here that Polo and his story walk into a heated controversy. 169 00:15:31,196 --> 00:15:34,996 Did Polo really make it across the Taklamakan into China? 170 00:15:37,036 --> 00:15:41,996 Or is the story of his arrival in the East a complete fabrication? 171 00:15:44,843 --> 00:15:47,311 Marco Polo has a format when he travels. 172 00:15:47,546 --> 00:15:48,979 He goes from city to city. 173 00:15:49,214 --> 00:15:51,648 He tells you where he is and he tells you how far it is 174 00:15:51,884 --> 00:15:52,942 from one point to the next. 175 00:15:53,185 --> 00:15:57,519 When he goes to visit the Mongol capital he departs from that format. 176 00:15:57,756 --> 00:15:59,883 He no longer tells you the cities in between 177 00:16:00,125 --> 00:16:02,719 where he is in north China and what's at the Mongol capital. 178 00:16:02,962 --> 00:16:06,898 So the effect when you're reading it is very abrupt. 179 00:16:09,735 --> 00:16:13,034 Did he go, how did he go, what cities are in between? 180 00:16:13,272 --> 00:16:15,934 And the only conclusion I can draw is he didn't go, 181 00:16:16,175 --> 00:16:19,633 that somebody told him about it and he just adds it in. 182 00:16:21,347 --> 00:16:24,680 This was a custom of travel writing during that time. 183 00:16:24,917 --> 00:16:30,014 You'd hear something and you'd claim that you actually had been 184 00:16:30,255 --> 00:16:34,817 and had actually witnessed the events that somebody else told you about. 185 00:16:36,261 --> 00:16:38,695 This has been taken by some scholars 186 00:16:38,931 --> 00:16:41,695 to mean that he probably didn't travel all the way to China. 187 00:16:41,934 --> 00:16:44,698 That is taking things a little too far. 188 00:16:46,505 --> 00:16:49,997 Marco Polo wrote about his travels while he was in prison. 189 00:16:50,242 --> 00:16:53,939 That obviously is going to affect the way he presents his information. 190 00:16:54,179 --> 00:16:58,548 He's at a difficult time in his life and he wants to attract an audience 191 00:16:58,784 --> 00:17:01,844 so he's going to emphasize the strangest and the most interesting 192 00:17:02,087 --> 00:17:05,887 rather than the ordinary elements of his travels. 193 00:17:08,360 --> 00:17:10,089 From his squalid cell in ltaly, 194 00:17:10,329 --> 00:17:14,891 Marco wrote about the luxurious court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol king, 195 00:17:15,134 --> 00:17:19,332 which he supposedly reached in 1275. 196 00:17:21,974 --> 00:17:26,502 He told how in Shengdu, the city later immortalized as Xanadu, 197 00:17:26,745 --> 00:17:30,943 the trials of his 4 year journey suddenly seemed worthwhile. 198 00:17:36,255 --> 00:17:39,952 ''The Khan's palace is the largest in the world. 199 00:17:40,492 --> 00:17:42,960 The roof is ablaze with every color 200 00:17:43,195 --> 00:17:47,097 it glitters like crystals and sparkles from afar. 201 00:17:51,003 --> 00:17:55,838 The hall is so vast that it could seat 6000 for one banquet.'' 202 00:17:59,411 --> 00:18:02,312 The descriptions that Marco Polo provides for us, 203 00:18:02,548 --> 00:18:06,780 descriptions of Xanadu for example, the summer palace of Kublai Khan 204 00:18:07,019 --> 00:18:09,351 dovetail with what we know of the archaeology of that city. 205 00:18:09,588 --> 00:18:12,318 The city was excavated in the 1930's by the Japanese 206 00:18:12,558 --> 00:18:15,959 and they found that the placement of the buildings 207 00:18:16,195 --> 00:18:17,787 and the style of the buildings 208 00:18:18,030 --> 00:18:20,828 was exactly the way Marco Polo had described them. 209 00:18:22,367 --> 00:18:24,927 The Venetian trader was equally impressed, it seems, 210 00:18:25,170 --> 00:18:27,638 by the mighty Yangtze river. 211 00:18:30,742 --> 00:18:33,768 ''lt is the greatest river in the world. 212 00:18:34,446 --> 00:18:39,315 More boats loaded with more dear things and of greater value come and go 213 00:18:39,551 --> 00:18:44,716 by this river than by all the rivers and seas used by the Christians.'' 214 00:18:51,864 --> 00:18:54,094 Marco could not have asked for more. 215 00:18:54,566 --> 00:18:57,296 He had made it safely to China. 216 00:18:57,603 --> 00:19:00,936 He had discovered a land of unimaginable wealth. 217 00:19:01,673 --> 00:19:04,972 His quest to establish a lucrative trade connection with the east 218 00:19:05,210 --> 00:19:07,474 was very much on course. 219 00:19:09,615 --> 00:19:12,083 It is here, on the threshold of his dream, 220 00:19:12,317 --> 00:19:16,117 that Marco's account turns fantastical. 221 00:19:18,290 --> 00:19:22,750 He says that he sees a fish that's a hundred feet long that has fur on it. 222 00:19:23,162 --> 00:19:28,099 He describes how the animals bow to visitors at the Khan's court. 223 00:19:28,333 --> 00:19:32,599 Like the tigers came out and they take a bow on cue. 224 00:19:32,838 --> 00:19:37,400 So you know it's just things that when you read it cannot have happened. 225 00:19:39,378 --> 00:19:44,873 The bizarre sections in Marco Polo of animal headed people 226 00:19:45,117 --> 00:19:50,180 and strange looking fish, this is something that is not unusual. 227 00:19:50,556 --> 00:19:54,185 The conventions of travel writing during that time fit in with 228 00:19:54,426 --> 00:19:59,523 the kind of mythologizing and fantasizing that Marco Polo includes. 229 00:20:02,801 --> 00:20:04,462 Equally controversial is 230 00:20:04,703 --> 00:20:08,730 the total absence of any reference to unique Chinese rituals 231 00:20:08,974 --> 00:20:12,910 that would have amazed a European seeing them for the first time. 232 00:20:14,112 --> 00:20:17,878 Marco Polo does not mention certain characteristics of China 233 00:20:18,116 --> 00:20:21,517 such as calligraphy, tea, bound feet 234 00:20:21,753 --> 00:20:25,189 because Marco Polo lived among the Mongols. 235 00:20:25,424 --> 00:20:29,622 He dealt with Kublai Khan and the other members of the Mongol nobility. 236 00:20:29,861 --> 00:20:31,226 He didn't deal with the Chinese. 237 00:20:31,463 --> 00:20:34,193 So just because he didn't mention those things 238 00:20:34,433 --> 00:20:36,799 doesn't mean that he didn't reach China. 239 00:20:45,377 --> 00:20:48,175 Marco Polo's defenders point to details 240 00:20:48,413 --> 00:20:50,938 which could not have been invented in Europe. 241 00:20:58,123 --> 00:21:01,991 ''Throughout the province of Cathay there are large black stones 242 00:21:02,227 --> 00:21:08,166 dug from the mountains which burn and make flames like logs.'' 243 00:21:09,034 --> 00:21:13,801 Marco Polo was the first European to ever write about coal 244 00:21:14,039 --> 00:21:18,135 a treasure that transformed the world. 245 00:21:20,045 --> 00:21:22,206 Marco Polo was definitely in China. 246 00:21:22,447 --> 00:21:27,350 I am absolutely convinced of it because of the tremendous detail in his book 247 00:21:27,586 --> 00:21:29,451 his descriptions of the Mongols: 248 00:21:29,688 --> 00:21:34,819 Mongol customs, Mongol dress, Mongol attitudes towards women. 249 00:21:35,060 --> 00:21:38,427 And in addition he describes specific events so clearly. 250 00:21:38,664 --> 00:21:42,225 The assassination of a finance minister. 251 00:21:42,467 --> 00:21:46,301 Now who would have known about that if you hadn't been in China? 252 00:21:46,538 --> 00:21:49,735 The reason I don't think Marco Polo went to China is that 253 00:21:49,975 --> 00:21:53,536 there are basic factual inaccuracies in the book. 254 00:21:54,379 --> 00:21:56,370 He says he's the governor of a town 255 00:21:56,615 --> 00:21:58,879 and we have a list of governors of that town, Yangzhou, 256 00:21:59,117 --> 00:22:00,277 and he's not on the list. 257 00:22:00,519 --> 00:22:04,387 And the second is he says he's at a battle that took place in 1273 258 00:22:04,623 --> 00:22:08,491 and we know the battle took place in 1268, which is before he gets there. 259 00:22:12,698 --> 00:22:15,360 Perhaps the secret to the mystery of Polo's account 260 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:18,831 lies in his prison cell in ltaly. 261 00:22:21,573 --> 00:22:24,736 Marco did not write the book himself. 262 00:22:25,077 --> 00:22:28,638 He dictated it, during his year in jail, 263 00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,314 to his cellmate, Rustichello 264 00:22:31,750 --> 00:22:36,619 who happened to be a writer with a passion for fairytales. 265 00:22:40,726 --> 00:22:44,753 Rustichello was a man whose renowned for writing romances 266 00:22:44,996 --> 00:22:48,591 and not actual descriptions of events. 267 00:22:48,834 --> 00:22:52,133 And so obviously the fact that Rustichello rather than Marco Polo 268 00:22:52,371 --> 00:22:57,399 set down the work may have added some of these legendary 269 00:22:57,642 --> 00:23:01,203 and mythical qualities to the work that Marco Polo had not intended. 270 00:23:05,217 --> 00:23:08,380 The only verifiable piece of evidence from Polo's life 271 00:23:08,620 --> 00:23:12,351 his willreveals that he died a wealthy man. 272 00:23:16,061 --> 00:23:19,792 Yet his nickname''ll Milione'' the big one 273 00:23:20,031 --> 00:23:25,128 mockingly referred to the size of his imagination, not his bankbalance. 274 00:23:28,507 --> 00:23:30,907 Marco was defiant till the end. 275 00:23:34,179 --> 00:23:37,671 When asked by his friends on his deathbed in 1324 276 00:23:37,916 --> 00:23:41,044 whether he had really been to China, Marco replied: 277 00:23:41,286 --> 00:23:46,622 ''l have only told you half of what I saw.'' 278 00:23:51,630 --> 00:23:54,895 Marco Polo died surrounded by doubters, 279 00:23:57,235 --> 00:24:01,672 yet his influence on the history of exploration is undisputed. 280 00:24:05,911 --> 00:24:10,905 His controversial book became the bible for a new generation of explorers. 281 00:24:11,917 --> 00:24:14,249 The inspiration for Christopher Columbus' 282 00:24:14,486 --> 00:24:17,455 historic discovery of the new world. 283 00:24:24,529 --> 00:24:28,795 The greatest impact Marco Polo has on later explorers is planting the idea 284 00:24:29,034 --> 00:24:34,700 that you can go to exotic places and write about them and become famous. 285 00:24:36,241 --> 00:24:39,699 When you think about it nobody before him is famous as an explorer. 286 00:24:39,945 --> 00:24:44,006 So he becomes the first famous explorer, adventurer. 287 00:24:48,286 --> 00:24:53,155 Whether Marco Polo did make it China or not, one thing is certain. 288 00:24:56,194 --> 00:24:58,628 His dream of pioneering a trade connection 289 00:24:58,864 --> 00:25:01,492 between East and West was never realized. 290 00:25:04,202 --> 00:25:09,401 China again dissolved into civil war, making travel in the East impossible. 291 00:25:12,511 --> 00:25:14,706 The tantalizing promise of the Silk Road 292 00:25:14,946 --> 00:25:20,782 once again faded into the past craving fulfillment in another age. 293 00:25:25,557 --> 00:25:30,688 600 years later, an ambitious explorer set out in Marco Polo's footsteps. 294 00:25:32,898 --> 00:25:37,335 Unlike Polo, Sven Hedin was not in search of wealth. 295 00:25:38,503 --> 00:25:43,065 He was after something far more elusive and dangerous. 296 00:25:50,215 --> 00:25:53,446 Stockholm, Sweden. 1949. 297 00:25:55,253 --> 00:26:01,192 Sven Hedin, the 84 year old explorer, prepares a memoir of his life. 298 00:26:03,461 --> 00:26:08,125 In his prime he heroically explored the earth's final frontier. 299 00:26:10,235 --> 00:26:13,295 He discovered lost cities of the Silk Road, 300 00:26:14,105 --> 00:26:18,599 bringing to life a forgotten civilization. 301 00:26:18,843 --> 00:26:23,507 Hedin, the ambitious adventurer, had won the adulation of the world. 302 00:26:24,049 --> 00:26:28,145 He was the Neil Armstrong of his day. 303 00:26:28,386 --> 00:26:30,377 You know, lnner Asia was the moon. 304 00:26:30,622 --> 00:26:32,021 And he went. 305 00:26:33,258 --> 00:26:38,059 He was very famous, a rock star at the time. 306 00:26:43,168 --> 00:26:48,629 But his passion for the spotlight led to a very dangerous liaison. 307 00:26:51,576 --> 00:26:57,412 After the war, Sven Hedin was obliterated from the memory of Europe. 308 00:26:57,649 --> 00:26:59,810 He was a persona non grata. 309 00:26:59,985 --> 00:27:03,113 Nobody wanted to touch him after the second world war. 310 00:27:03,355 --> 00:27:08,122 Sven Hedin was really a person who you couldn't associate with. 311 00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:15,960 In his memoir, Sven Hedin has one last chance to redeem himself. 312 00:27:16,568 --> 00:27:19,799 Would he exorcise the demons of his past? 313 00:27:21,272 --> 00:27:25,231 Or would he die a forgotten man? 314 00:27:31,950 --> 00:27:34,077 April 24th, 1880. 315 00:27:34,319 --> 00:27:42,522 15 yearold Sven watches in awe as his childhood hero returns triumphant. 316 00:27:46,064 --> 00:27:49,693 Stockholm harbor is a riot of pride and excitement. 317 00:27:51,269 --> 00:27:55,205 Adolf Nordenskiold, the Swedish explorer, has come home 318 00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:59,274 the first person to sail around Russia back to Europe. 319 00:28:01,212 --> 00:28:03,772 Together with his family he had climbed the mountains 320 00:28:04,015 --> 00:28:06,006 overlooking the harbor of Stockholm, 321 00:28:06,251 --> 00:28:10,244 from where he and thousands and thousands of Stockholm people 322 00:28:10,488 --> 00:28:13,013 watched the return of the ship. 323 00:28:14,092 --> 00:28:16,253 A great national hero was created 324 00:28:16,494 --> 00:28:20,794 and Sven Hedin really wanted to step into his footsteps. 325 00:28:22,233 --> 00:28:27,170 This dream of fame and adventure would drive Hedin all his life. 326 00:28:30,375 --> 00:28:32,673 It was in Berlin, as a geography student 327 00:28:32,911 --> 00:28:37,075 that Hedin developed his lifelong obsession with central Asia. 328 00:28:40,952 --> 00:28:42,579 At the turn of the 20th century, 329 00:28:42,821 --> 00:28:47,622 Central Asia was one of the last unexplored frontiers on earth. 330 00:28:49,427 --> 00:28:54,364 the distant prize of aspiring explorers and world statesmen alike. 331 00:28:58,336 --> 00:29:01,601 For it was the center of a brooding cold war: 332 00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:04,570 a race between Britain, Russia and China 333 00:29:04,809 --> 00:29:07,505 to expand their empires in the region. 334 00:29:10,148 --> 00:29:13,208 With the eyes of the world focused on this remote land, 335 00:29:13,451 --> 00:29:16,318 it was the perfect stage for the ambitious Hedin 336 00:29:16,554 --> 00:29:18,954 to make his name as an explorer. 337 00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:27,655 At its heart, was a massive sea of sand known as the Taklamakan. 338 00:29:28,500 --> 00:29:33,563 When Hedin decided on becoming an explorer, he wanted deserts. 339 00:29:33,805 --> 00:29:37,002 Explorers should climb dangerous mountains 340 00:29:37,242 --> 00:29:39,233 and they should cross dangerous deserts. 341 00:29:39,477 --> 00:29:41,172 That's what an explorer should do. 342 00:29:41,412 --> 00:29:44,472 So he found this Taklamakan which according to him, 343 00:29:44,716 --> 00:29:48,379 no one ever had crossed, in living memory at least. 344 00:29:48,620 --> 00:29:53,387 He wanted to be the first, to walk on paths 345 00:29:53,625 --> 00:29:56,185 where no man ever walked before. 346 00:29:59,664 --> 00:30:03,100 Hedin was sure that beneath the Taklamakan's shifting sand 347 00:30:03,334 --> 00:30:06,633 lay ancient cities of the old Silk Road 348 00:30:06,871 --> 00:30:11,308 which had been lost to the world for over a thousand years. 349 00:30:15,747 --> 00:30:18,807 If only he could discover the lost cities of the Silk Road, 350 00:30:19,050 --> 00:30:22,781 Hedin believed his path to fame would be secure. 351 00:30:29,561 --> 00:30:33,622 In 1893, Hedin obtained funding from the king of Sweden 352 00:30:33,865 --> 00:30:37,926 to explore the uncharted extremes of central Asia. 353 00:30:39,337 --> 00:30:42,306 But his imminent departure was bittersweet. 354 00:30:42,774 --> 00:30:47,268 Hedin was leaving behind the woman of his dreams. 355 00:30:48,847 --> 00:30:51,645 Mille Bruman was beautiful and very wealthy. 356 00:30:51,883 --> 00:30:54,750 Like Hedin, she was a romantic. 357 00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:57,420 He adored her. 358 00:30:58,690 --> 00:31:03,627 ''She was magnificent in her youth, innocence and beauty. 359 00:31:03,862 --> 00:31:08,697 She was blonde and had eyes of the most beautiful color.'' 360 00:31:10,034 --> 00:31:14,130 In Sven's mind, there was no doubt they would marry when he got back. 361 00:31:26,584 --> 00:31:29,075 Kashi, modern day China. 362 00:31:29,654 --> 00:31:35,752 Once known as Kashgar, a key market town along the old Silk Road. 363 00:31:38,263 --> 00:31:43,565 Sven Hedin arrived here in 1894, after a grueling year long journey. 364 00:31:43,868 --> 00:31:47,395 Kashi was the obvious base for Hedin's expedition 365 00:31:47,672 --> 00:31:50,937 for it stood on the edge of the Taklamakan 366 00:31:51,175 --> 00:31:53,939 the desert Hedin had come to explore. 367 00:31:55,980 --> 00:32:00,041 With thousandfoot sand dunes and 130degree summer heat, 368 00:32:00,285 --> 00:32:04,051 the desert is one of the most forbidding places on earth. 369 00:32:11,229 --> 00:32:13,629 Hedin began to make careful preparations 370 00:32:13,865 --> 00:32:18,268 for an expedition into the desert, when devastating news arrived. 371 00:32:21,539 --> 00:32:24,702 When he was sitting there waiting for his camels there 372 00:32:24,943 --> 00:32:30,745 came a letter from home where somebody wrote that his love, 373 00:32:30,982 --> 00:32:36,648 Mille Maria Bruman, was going to get engaged with someone else. 374 00:32:36,888 --> 00:32:40,051 And his whole world shattered. 375 00:32:43,194 --> 00:32:48,359 And he writes about his desperation that now nothing was worth anything. 376 00:32:48,599 --> 00:32:50,863 He would do this absolutely crazy thing. 377 00:32:51,102 --> 00:32:54,594 He would just venture into the desert and see what would come out of it. 378 00:32:56,007 --> 00:32:57,497 Hedin was heartbroken. 379 00:32:59,577 --> 00:33:01,807 Distraught and totally ill equipped, 380 00:33:02,046 --> 00:33:07,177 he set off on a suicidal quest to find a lost city in the desert. 381 00:33:10,388 --> 00:33:13,323 He walked through the streets and the people formed lines 382 00:33:13,558 --> 00:33:15,549 and they cheered him and they cried 383 00:33:15,793 --> 00:33:16,885 and they said you will go to the desert of death 384 00:33:17,128 --> 00:33:18,254 and you will never come out alive. 385 00:33:18,496 --> 00:33:20,657 And he walked through the streets with his laden camels 386 00:33:20,898 --> 00:33:23,366 and people said his camels are too heavy. 387 00:33:23,601 --> 00:33:26,035 They'll not make it, he'll not come back from the desert of death. 388 00:33:26,270 --> 00:33:28,898 They walked out to the edge of the desert and disappeared. 389 00:33:31,476 --> 00:33:35,207 ''One thousand heavy steps towards the goal. 390 00:33:35,446 --> 00:33:38,677 Not one backwards was my motto.'' 391 00:33:48,860 --> 00:33:53,229 Stubborn and defiant, Hedin had started a deathmarch. 392 00:33:56,901 --> 00:33:58,926 15 days into the trip, 393 00:33:59,170 --> 00:34:03,038 Hedin realized his guides had not brought enough water. 394 00:34:03,374 --> 00:34:07,970 The expedition was now in the middle of the deadliest desert on earth 395 00:34:08,446 --> 00:34:11,074 with only two days of water left. 396 00:34:14,652 --> 00:34:16,085 Should they turn back? 397 00:34:17,088 --> 00:34:18,783 Or look for an oasis? 398 00:34:21,826 --> 00:34:24,590 Hedin, as ever, chose to push on. 399 00:34:28,232 --> 00:34:30,223 Straight into the Karaburan 400 00:34:30,468 --> 00:34:34,962 an infamous storm that whips the sand into a punishing frenzy. 401 00:34:37,642 --> 00:34:42,136 His expedition was now lost in the dreaded Taklamakan. 402 00:34:44,515 --> 00:34:46,676 The name 'Taklamakan' from the Uighur translates is 403 00:34:46,918 --> 00:34:48,783 ''you go in but you do not come out.'' 404 00:34:51,689 --> 00:34:54,715 By 9 o'clock in the morning having spent 2 and a half hours 405 00:34:54,959 --> 00:34:57,427 loading your camels to get ready for the day's march, 406 00:34:57,662 --> 00:34:59,220 you could have drunk the water by then, 407 00:34:59,464 --> 00:35:03,423 let alone keep it and have precious sips throughout the day, 408 00:35:03,668 --> 00:35:06,865 to try and cover a pitiful maybe five miles at most. 409 00:35:07,205 --> 00:35:08,729 Because the nature of the sand dunes is such 410 00:35:08,973 --> 00:35:11,601 you can't go in a straight line or very fast. 411 00:35:12,243 --> 00:35:14,143 Then the sand just gets into every part of your body 412 00:35:14,378 --> 00:35:18,974 your nose, your eyes, your ears just become blocked with it. 413 00:35:20,218 --> 00:35:22,311 And your lips were split. 414 00:35:22,553 --> 00:35:25,920 Your tongue was swollen and sticking to the roof of your mouth. 415 00:35:32,029 --> 00:35:35,760 Over the course of the next 5 days, 2 of Hedin's team 416 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:40,869 died from dehydration, and one collapsed with exhaustion. 417 00:35:42,907 --> 00:35:44,966 Finally Hedin and a local guide, 418 00:35:45,209 --> 00:35:49,407 stumbled across footsteps which they prayed would lead to water. 419 00:35:54,385 --> 00:35:55,818 ''Why should I die, 420 00:35:56,053 --> 00:36:01,320 in the embraces of this deceitful desert, for an unfaithful girl? 421 00:36:04,595 --> 00:36:07,996 I will conquer the desert and return home a hero 422 00:36:08,232 --> 00:36:12,828 and all my people will see it as a manly and courageous deed.'' 423 00:36:15,406 --> 00:36:17,533 But the footsteps were their own. 424 00:36:18,643 --> 00:36:20,941 They had walked in a circle. 425 00:36:24,382 --> 00:36:31,879 The guide gave up, leaving Hedin alone to crawl to a parched death. 426 00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:37,525 He struggled on. 427 00:36:42,233 --> 00:36:47,398 After 6 days without water, Hedin finally found the Khotan river. 428 00:36:50,007 --> 00:36:54,637 Luck and unbelievable perseverance had saved him. 429 00:36:57,148 --> 00:37:04,782 His whole life was characterized by this will to achieveto prove himself, 430 00:37:05,423 --> 00:37:08,415 to prove that he was not a failure. 431 00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:14,359 The failure that he had become when she turned him down. 432 00:37:20,638 --> 00:37:25,803 Six months after his first disaster, Hedin was back in the Taklamakan. 433 00:37:27,845 --> 00:37:32,248 More determined than ever to find the footsteps to fame. 434 00:37:36,988 --> 00:37:38,751 One night, a local brought Hedin 435 00:37:38,990 --> 00:37:41,481 some woodcarvings he had found in the desert. 436 00:37:42,827 --> 00:37:47,230 Mysterious objects which might lead him to the lost civilization 437 00:37:47,465 --> 00:37:48,932 buried beneath the sand. 438 00:37:51,235 --> 00:37:54,830 ''ln spite of my misfortunes the previous spring, 439 00:37:55,072 --> 00:37:59,736 I was again drawn irresistibly toward the mysterious country 440 00:37:59,910 --> 00:38:01,844 under the eternal sand.'' 441 00:38:05,916 --> 00:38:07,975 This expedition was different. 442 00:38:10,855 --> 00:38:14,848 The water bottles were full, the winter air cooler. 443 00:38:20,665 --> 00:38:23,463 After a 5day trek into the Taklamakan, 444 00:38:23,701 --> 00:38:27,831 Hedin finally came across signs of an abandoned city. 445 00:38:29,707 --> 00:38:34,701 He stopped and looked for confirmation. 446 00:38:36,947 --> 00:38:39,006 The evidence was undeniable. 447 00:38:41,152 --> 00:38:46,283 He had found Dandanuilik, a lost city of the Silk Road. 448 00:38:51,896 --> 00:38:54,922 ''No explorer had an inkling, up till now, 449 00:38:55,166 --> 00:38:57,862 of the existence of this ancient city. 450 00:39:00,204 --> 00:39:04,106 Here I stand, like the prince in the enchanted wood, 451 00:39:04,342 --> 00:39:06,902 having wakened to new life a city 452 00:39:07,144 --> 00:39:10,409 which has slumbered for a thousand years.'' 453 00:39:14,418 --> 00:39:16,784 Hedin's discovery was just a beginning. 454 00:39:19,390 --> 00:39:23,918 It started one of the greatest archaeological races of the 20th century. 455 00:39:28,099 --> 00:39:31,159 Hedin's main contribution to the Silk Road is that 456 00:39:31,402 --> 00:39:35,270 he starts the race to discover all the Silk Road sites. 457 00:39:35,539 --> 00:39:37,302 He is never the person who figures out 458 00:39:37,541 --> 00:39:39,839 the historical significance of any given site. 459 00:39:40,077 --> 00:39:43,274 But, he's the person who gets other people to go 460 00:39:43,514 --> 00:39:45,277 and figure those things out. 461 00:39:48,219 --> 00:39:51,620 Using Hedin's pioneering maps, famous archaeologists 462 00:39:51,856 --> 00:39:53,881 like Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot 463 00:39:54,125 --> 00:39:58,391 raced desperately to find other lost cities of the Silk Road. 464 00:40:01,999 --> 00:40:06,766 For these Europeans, it was much more than a race for buried treasure. 465 00:40:08,305 --> 00:40:11,069 It was a battle to appropriate the history of an area 466 00:40:11,409 --> 00:40:13,900 they hoped to control in the future. 467 00:40:17,415 --> 00:40:23,581 The Silk Road, a forgotten ideal, was once again a global concern. 468 00:40:26,390 --> 00:40:31,487 Despite his success, Hedin was still infatuated with Mille. 469 00:40:32,630 --> 00:40:35,565 The proud Swede wrote her a letter, 470 00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:38,735 wishing her happiness with her future husband. 471 00:40:40,070 --> 00:40:43,062 She was at that time on vacation in Norway 472 00:40:43,307 --> 00:40:46,435 and she had decided to break up the engagement 473 00:40:46,677 --> 00:40:50,272 because the one she really loved was Sven Hedin. 474 00:40:50,514 --> 00:40:52,505 So she wrote this letter to Sven Hedin. 475 00:40:52,750 --> 00:40:56,049 She went to the post office to drop it in the post box 476 00:40:56,287 --> 00:41:00,747 and the postman says oh here's a letter for youfrom Sven Hedin. 477 00:41:03,828 --> 00:41:05,591 And she got this message 478 00:41:05,830 --> 00:41:09,163 that he wanted her to be happy with her new husband. 479 00:41:10,534 --> 00:41:13,867 And she thought that now he has forgotten her. 480 00:41:17,441 --> 00:41:22,845 So she got married and he went to new expeditions. 481 00:41:28,486 --> 00:41:32,650 Wounded and defiant, Hedin pushed harder on his quest for fame. 482 00:41:41,699 --> 00:41:44,099 Over the next 10 years, this solitary, 483 00:41:44,335 --> 00:41:48,567 driven man set out to chart the earth's final frontiers. 484 00:41:54,111 --> 00:41:57,239 He traveled more than a third of the world's circumference, 485 00:41:59,617 --> 00:42:03,212 mapping an area twice the breadth of the United States. 486 00:42:06,323 --> 00:42:10,760 He was the first to explore the mighty Transhimalayan Mountains in Tibet, 487 00:42:12,730 --> 00:42:15,995 the first to trace the source of the lndus River. 488 00:42:21,071 --> 00:42:26,475 I think that the ideal of Sven Hedin was the strong and lonely man. 489 00:42:27,011 --> 00:42:29,844 He said that the best thing with the desert is that there are no people. 490 00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:33,345 A real man was a lonely man. 491 00:42:34,184 --> 00:42:39,383 His ideal was the lonely leader who took his responsibility 492 00:42:39,623 --> 00:42:43,719 and did great things for the nation, for mankind. 493 00:42:46,163 --> 00:42:50,156 As he put Central Asia and the Silk Road back on the world's map, 494 00:42:50,401 --> 00:42:54,531 Hedin became one of the most celebrated explorers of the day. 495 00:43:03,547 --> 00:43:10,077 On January 17th 1909, Sven Hedin returned to Sweden a hero. 496 00:43:12,923 --> 00:43:16,415 Sven's childhood dream had come true. 497 00:43:18,028 --> 00:43:20,690 Thousands of Swedes were there to greet him 498 00:43:20,931 --> 00:43:24,298 just as they were for Nordenskiold, 30 years earlier. 499 00:43:28,138 --> 00:43:30,333 But it still wasn't enough. 500 00:43:33,410 --> 00:43:37,904 ''The joy I felt to be reunited with my parents and siblings 501 00:43:38,148 --> 00:43:42,084 and to be greeted by the old king was darkened 502 00:43:42,319 --> 00:43:46,312 because she was not there to greet me.'' 503 00:43:48,459 --> 00:43:50,586 Alone in his moment of triumph, 504 00:43:50,828 --> 00:43:54,764 Hedin craved adulation on an ever larger stage. 505 00:43:56,367 --> 00:44:00,463 It was a path that would ultimately end in tragedy. 506 00:44:07,111 --> 00:44:11,275 In 1914, Europe slipped into world war. 507 00:44:12,549 --> 00:44:17,145 As the conflict intensified, Sven Hedin headed for the frontline 508 00:44:17,621 --> 00:44:24,026 as a war correspondent for the German high command. 509 00:44:25,729 --> 00:44:31,190 There are many reasons why Sven Hedin supported Germany throughout his life. 510 00:44:31,435 --> 00:44:34,893 Germany, the scientific community, always supported him. 511 00:44:35,139 --> 00:44:37,801 He came from a background in Stockholm 512 00:44:38,042 --> 00:44:40,203 where one always were close to the Germans, 513 00:44:40,444 --> 00:44:42,139 so that was a natural thing. 514 00:44:42,379 --> 00:44:49,581 But the really decisive factor was his belief in geopolitics. 515 00:44:51,155 --> 00:44:55,114 Like many Swedes, Hedin believed that Germany was the only power 516 00:44:55,359 --> 00:44:58,692 capable of protecting Sweden from a Russian invasion. 517 00:45:04,535 --> 00:45:08,562 When Germany lost the war, allied countries like England and France 518 00:45:08,806 --> 00:45:11,969 retracted the honors they had bestowed on him. 519 00:45:13,644 --> 00:45:16,545 Hedin was on the wrong side. 520 00:45:17,314 --> 00:45:21,250 He would defiantly stay there for the rest of his life. 521 00:45:25,089 --> 00:45:27,922 Unperturbed, the explorer focused on writing books 522 00:45:28,158 --> 00:45:30,319 about his previous expeditions. 523 00:45:31,862 --> 00:45:35,662 In 1920, Mille got back in touch with him. 524 00:45:36,166 --> 00:45:38,134 They had had some meetings. 525 00:45:38,368 --> 00:45:42,464 She had children and she, she wrote a letter to him. 526 00:45:43,207 --> 00:45:46,699 That she could never forget, forget him. 527 00:45:46,944 --> 00:45:53,372 He was the love of her life, and couldn't they get back together. 528 00:45:56,253 --> 00:46:00,917 And he wrote back that you know what is done is done. 529 00:46:01,158 --> 00:46:07,427 Never turn back; 1,000 heavy steps towards the goal, 530 00:46:07,664 --> 00:46:10,155 but not one backwards. 531 00:46:17,274 --> 00:46:19,640 Hedin returned to Central Asia: 532 00:46:19,877 --> 00:46:23,677 the region he now called his ''frozen bride.'' 533 00:46:25,983 --> 00:46:29,384 ''She has held me captive in her cold embrace, 534 00:46:29,720 --> 00:46:33,952 and out of jealousy would not let me love any other. 535 00:46:34,391 --> 00:46:40,057 And I have been faithful to her, that is certain.'' 536 00:46:43,534 --> 00:46:48,904 Hedin's new project was to draw up maps for a revolutionary new Silk Road 537 00:46:49,206 --> 00:46:55,702 a massive motorway that would run 5000 miles from Peking 538 00:46:55,946 --> 00:46:57,675 all the way to Vienna. 539 00:47:08,158 --> 00:47:11,753 Hedin's pioneering maps were the basis for the overland highway 540 00:47:11,995 --> 00:47:14,429 that today links Asia with Europe. 541 00:47:17,467 --> 00:47:21,995 ''This highway should unite two continents, Asia and Europe; 542 00:47:22,272 --> 00:47:25,469 two cultures, the Chinese and the Western.'' 543 00:47:29,346 --> 00:47:34,079 Sven Hedinthe man who had rediscovered the Silk Road 40 years earlier 544 00:47:34,318 --> 00:47:37,481 had now given it a new lease of life. 545 00:47:39,957 --> 00:47:44,018 The world famous explorer now gambled his celebrity 546 00:47:44,261 --> 00:47:46,320 on a highly controversial cause. 547 00:47:48,732 --> 00:47:52,930 Hedin's achievements had attracted influential admirers. 548 00:47:53,904 --> 00:47:56,771 One was Adolf Hitler. 549 00:47:57,674 --> 00:48:01,007 There was a special relation between Sven Hedin and Adolf Hitler 550 00:48:01,245 --> 00:48:06,911 who had only had two heroes in his life, and one of them was Sven Hedin. 551 00:48:07,251 --> 00:48:09,378 It was Sven Hedin's stories 552 00:48:09,620 --> 00:48:14,751 that had kind of awakened the young Adolf Hitler to the world. 553 00:48:14,992 --> 00:48:19,554 So when they met in the '30s and the beginning of the '40s, 554 00:48:19,796 --> 00:48:26,201 Hitler wanted to talk about all the heroic things that Sven Hedin had done. 555 00:48:29,006 --> 00:48:31,770 Hedin, the attentionseeker, was flattered. 556 00:48:34,444 --> 00:48:39,848 In 1936, he gave the opening speech at the Olympic games in Berlin. 557 00:48:40,851 --> 00:48:45,254 For Hedin, Germany had always been a symbol of honor and discipline. 558 00:48:46,623 --> 00:48:47,988 He would refuse to see that 559 00:48:48,225 --> 00:48:51,820 the Third Reich was the cause of the horrors to come. 560 00:48:55,732 --> 00:49:00,726 In 1940, an eye disease that plagued Hedin all his life resurfaced, 561 00:49:00,971 --> 00:49:03,337 and the explorer went partially blind. 562 00:49:05,876 --> 00:49:09,277 A Norwegian resistance fighter was brought to Sven Hedin 563 00:49:09,513 --> 00:49:11,708 to tell him about the torture 564 00:49:11,949 --> 00:49:15,441 that he had sustained on the hands of, of German soldiers. 565 00:49:15,919 --> 00:49:18,410 And Hedin couldn't believe him 566 00:49:18,655 --> 00:49:23,615 because it just didn't fit his image of what a German soldier is. 567 00:49:23,860 --> 00:49:30,527 And then the Resistance man told him that his face was badly scarred. 568 00:49:32,002 --> 00:49:36,598 And he took Sven Hedin's hand and Sven Hedin could feel the scars. 569 00:49:38,175 --> 00:49:42,111 And the story goes that Hedin's eyes then are filled with tears 570 00:49:42,346 --> 00:49:44,405 but still he couldn't believe that 571 00:49:44,648 --> 00:49:47,378 a German soldier could do something like that. 572 00:49:50,287 --> 00:49:55,657 In 1945, when the atrocities of Hitler's regime were undisputed, 573 00:49:55,959 --> 00:49:59,520 Hedin chose to ignore them. 574 00:50:02,232 --> 00:50:07,192 He was always very naively attracted to these men of power. 575 00:50:07,437 --> 00:50:12,306 And it's never as glaring as when it comes to Adolf Hitler. 576 00:50:13,110 --> 00:50:18,412 Sven Hedin simply didn't want to see that this was an evil man. 577 00:50:22,419 --> 00:50:25,855 ''One thousand heavy steps towards the goal. 578 00:50:26,757 --> 00:50:28,782 Not one back.'' 579 00:50:31,094 --> 00:50:34,257 The motto that led Hedin to triumph in the desert 580 00:50:34,498 --> 00:50:37,467 now led him to disgrace in Europe. 581 00:50:40,370 --> 00:50:45,774 An unrepentant Nazi sympathizer, Hedin was an international outcast. 582 00:50:47,544 --> 00:50:49,239 Banished from the world stage, 583 00:50:49,479 --> 00:50:53,745 the defiant explorer wrote about his past in the limelight. 584 00:50:55,585 --> 00:50:59,544 Hedin sent a letter to a friend's 15yearold daughter. 585 00:51:00,757 --> 00:51:05,751 ''l understand that you will speak at school about my travels in Asia. 586 00:51:07,197 --> 00:51:11,429 Greet the deserts and mountains when you speak to them, 587 00:51:11,668 --> 00:51:16,196 but tell them that I do not long after them anymore.'' 588 00:51:19,242 --> 00:51:22,871 After World War ll, Hedin never returned to Asia. 589 00:51:24,815 --> 00:51:28,273 When the Communists seized control of China in 1949, 590 00:51:28,652 --> 00:51:31,780 they severed all links with the West. 591 00:51:35,325 --> 00:51:38,385 The Silk Road Hedin's lifelong obsession 592 00:51:38,628 --> 00:51:41,688 was once again abandoned. 593 00:51:45,202 --> 00:51:50,606 Sven Hedin died in his sleep in 1952 at the age of 87. 594 00:51:53,410 --> 00:52:01,283 By his bed was a photo of his beloved Mille, with an inscription on it: 595 00:52:02,085 --> 00:52:07,887 ''You have been by my side on all my travels''.