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Among the Mountains: Travels Through Asia
Wilfred Thesiger, this century's greatest living explorer, recalls his travels among the mountain ranges of Asia. Eventful, interesting and remarkable achievements in their own right, the Asian journeys - among the Hindu Kush, the Karakorams and the Pamirs - have inspired many of the finest photographs Thesiger has ever taken and contribute significantly to his standing as a great traveller and explorer. Spanning a period of over 30 years (1951-1983) this book draws on Thesiger's original diaries of his various journeys and his vivid memories of them, and includes some 80 or so previously unpublished photographs of the stunning mountain scenery he saw and the people he encountered.
174 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Wilfred Thesiger
37 books199 followersSir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, KBE, DSO, MA, DLitt, FRAS, FRSL, FRGS, FBA, was a British explorer and travel writer born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
Thesiger was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford University where he took a third in history. Between 1930 and 1933, Thesiger represented Oxford at boxing and later (1933) became captain of the Oxford boxing team.
In 1930, Thesiger returned to Africa, having received a personal invitation by Emperor Haile Selassie to attend his coronation. He returned again in 1933 in an expedition, funded in part by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore the course of the Awash River. During this expedition, he became the first European to enter the Aussa Sultanate and visit Lake Abbe.
Afterwards, in 1935, Thesiger joined the Sudan Political Service stationed in Darfur and the Upper Nile. He served in several desert campaigns with the Sudan Defence Force (SDF) and the Special Air Service (SAS) with the rank of major.
In World War II, Thesiger fought with Gideon Force in Ethiopia during the East African Campaign. He was awarded the DSO for capturing Agibar and its garrison of 2500 Italian troops. Afterwards, Thesiger served in the Long Range Desert Group during the North African Campaign.
There is a rare wartime photograph of Thesiger in this period. He appears in a well-known photograph usually used to illustrate the badge of the Greek Sacred Squadron. It is usually captioned 'a Greek officer of the Sacred Band briefing British troops'. The officer is recognisably the famous Tsigantes and one of the crowd is recognisably Thesiger. Thesiger is the tall figure with the distinct nasal profile. Characteristically, he is in Arab headdress. Thesiger was the liaison officer to the Greek Squadron.
In 1945, Thesiger worked in Arabia with the Desert Locusts Research Organisation. Meanwhile, from 1945 to 1949, he explored the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula and twice crossed the Empty Quarter. His travels also took him to Iraq, Persia (now Iran), Kurdistan, French West Africa, Pakistan, and Kenya. He returned to England in the 1990s and was knighted in 1995.
Thesiger is best known for two travel books. Arabian Sands (1959) recounts his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins. The Marsh Arabs (1964) is an account of the Madan, the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. The latter journey is also covered by his travelling companion, Gavin Maxwell, in A Reed Shaken By The Wind — a Journey Through the Unexplored Marshlands of Iraq (Longman, 1959).
Thesiger took many photographs during his travels and donated his vast collection of 25,000 negatives to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
Thesiger was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford University where he took a third in history. Between 1930 and 1933, Thesiger represented Oxford at boxing and later (1933) became captain of the Oxford boxing team.
In 1930, Thesiger returned to Africa, having received a personal invitation by Emperor Haile Selassie to attend his coronation. He returned again in 1933 in an expedition, funded in part by the Royal Geographical Society, to explore the course of the Awash River. During this expedition, he became the first European to enter the Aussa Sultanate and visit Lake Abbe.
Afterwards, in 1935, Thesiger joined the Sudan Political Service stationed in Darfur and the Upper Nile. He served in several desert campaigns with the Sudan Defence Force (SDF) and the Special Air Service (SAS) with the rank of major.
In World War II, Thesiger fought with Gideon Force in Ethiopia during the East African Campaign. He was awarded the DSO for capturing Agibar and its garrison of 2500 Italian troops. Afterwards, Thesiger served in the Long Range Desert Group during the North African Campaign.
There is a rare wartime photograph of Thesiger in this period. He appears in a well-known photograph usually used to illustrate the badge of the Greek Sacred Squadron. It is usually captioned 'a Greek officer of the Sacred Band briefing British troops'. The officer is recognisably the famous Tsigantes and one of the crowd is recognisably Thesiger. Thesiger is the tall figure with the distinct nasal profile. Characteristically, he is in Arab headdress. Thesiger was the liaison officer to the Greek Squadron.
In 1945, Thesiger worked in Arabia with the Desert Locusts Research Organisation. Meanwhile, from 1945 to 1949, he explored the southern regions of the Arabian peninsula and twice crossed the Empty Quarter. His travels also took him to Iraq, Persia (now Iran), Kurdistan, French West Africa, Pakistan, and Kenya. He returned to England in the 1990s and was knighted in 1995.
Thesiger is best known for two travel books. Arabian Sands (1959) recounts his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins. The Marsh Arabs (1964) is an account of the Madan, the indigenous people of the marshlands of southern Iraq. The latter journey is also covered by his travelling companion, Gavin Maxwell, in A Reed Shaken By The Wind — a Journey Through the Unexplored Marshlands of Iraq (Longman, 1959).
Thesiger took many photographs during his travels and donated his vast collection of 25,000 negatives to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 3, 2022
Published in 1998, Thesiger wrote this from his journal entires of multiple trips to the mountains of Central Asia. Initially putting together a book of his photography from these trips, he was encouraged to adapt his journal in this manner. Perhaps for this reason, the writing doesn't have the flow of his usual work, but is still quite readable. It often has the repetition of a diarised book - in that each day consists of packing up, moving on, eating and finding a place to sleep.
More than the text, the photographs in this book are great. Not only the excellent landscapes, but also the portraits for which Thesiger is so well known. There a a lot of photos - the book is only 165 pages, but there are around 45 un-numbered pages of black and white photographs.
The trips covered in this book are Chitral in 1952, Hunza in 1953, Hazarajat in 1954, Nuristan in 1956, and again in 1965, as well as a preface in Iraqi Kurdistan 1950-51 and a brief Epilogue in Ladakh in 1983.
In the 1956 Nuristan section, Thesiger writes about his memorable encounter with Eric Newby and Hugh Carless, as told by Newby in A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.
Four stars from me, but everything Thesiger does is great from my perspective.
More than the text, the photographs in this book are great. Not only the excellent landscapes, but also the portraits for which Thesiger is so well known. There a a lot of photos - the book is only 165 pages, but there are around 45 un-numbered pages of black and white photographs.
The trips covered in this book are Chitral in 1952, Hunza in 1953, Hazarajat in 1954, Nuristan in 1956, and again in 1965, as well as a preface in Iraqi Kurdistan 1950-51 and a brief Epilogue in Ladakh in 1983.
In the 1956 Nuristan section, Thesiger writes about his memorable encounter with Eric Newby and Hugh Carless, as told by Newby in A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.
Four stars from me, but everything Thesiger does is great from my perspective.
December 12, 2016
I wish it were possible to comment on two books in the same review, because I was only going to bother mentioning this one in connection with Eric Newby’s A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, where I had the pleasurable experience of unexpectedly meeting one book inside another.
Recently I read this account of Wilfrid Thesiger's travels in Afghanistan and remembered about the incident where Newby and his companion Carless met the grand old man. It turned out it was on this very trip so I wondered if Thesiger would mention it.
Well, yes he did, but only to say that he encountered two (un-named) young travellers from England. You have to read Newby to find out what he actually said to them: “God, you must be a couple of pansies” (a reference to the fact that they actually had sleeping pads).
In fact Thesiger reveals little of himself or anything personal in this book; it is more a catalogue of the magnificent places passed through. Clearly he was a tough old bird and nothing fazed him, but there is no emotion in these pages, it is dry as the dust of his journey. Thesiger is very erudite and learned about the people and the places he passes through, dropping hints of long-forgotten rulers and customs, but he comes across as supercilious and somewhat hostile to everything and everyone.
Long live the Newby style!
Recently I read this account of Wilfrid Thesiger's travels in Afghanistan and remembered about the incident where Newby and his companion Carless met the grand old man. It turned out it was on this very trip so I wondered if Thesiger would mention it.
Well, yes he did, but only to say that he encountered two (un-named) young travellers from England. You have to read Newby to find out what he actually said to them: “God, you must be a couple of pansies” (a reference to the fact that they actually had sleeping pads).
In fact Thesiger reveals little of himself or anything personal in this book; it is more a catalogue of the magnificent places passed through. Clearly he was a tough old bird and nothing fazed him, but there is no emotion in these pages, it is dry as the dust of his journey. Thesiger is very erudite and learned about the people and the places he passes through, dropping hints of long-forgotten rulers and customs, but he comes across as supercilious and somewhat hostile to everything and everyone.
Long live the Newby style!
August 12, 2013
This Thesiger should be read after his great books The Marsh Arabs and Arabian Sands. Thesiger is so matter of fact, you have to stop and think, Did he just write that he was walking in snow waist deep or did he just take a gun from a perspective murderer? It's swashbuckling without the swash. However, I read it with the joy I read all intrepid travelers. They often can be arrogant and pig headed but, by god, they get out and endure hardships because there is a whole world to be seen up close and since I will never wade through snow or wrest guns from angry tribesmen, I am glad people like Thesiger do.
To be fair about Thesiger's distance to those around him, he did note that on these journeys he could not speak the native language as he could in other travels.
To be fair about Thesiger's distance to those around him, he did note that on these journeys he could not speak the native language as he could in other travels.
November 9, 2017
Wilfred Thesiger spent seven years living with the Marsh Arabs of Southern Iraq and wrote a very good book about them. During the hottest months he also undertook expeditions in various mountainous regions further north, wrote notes about them and took many photographs. This book contains the notes and some photographs from those expeditions, with very little expansion beyond the bare facts of the journeys. They are detailed and observant, so if one wished and could get permission to do so, it would be possible to use them to recreate the expeditions, see something of what Thesiger saw in the 1950s and see also how much has changed.
The preface briefly covers two expeditions to Iraqi Kurdistan in 1950 and 1951, then there are more detailed expeditions to Chitral in the Hindu Kush, North-Western Pakistan, in 1952, Hunza in the Karakorum Range, Northern Pakistan, in 1953, Hazarajat, Central Afghanistan, in 1954 and Nuristan in the Hindu Kush, North-Eastern Afghanistan, in 1956. (In 1955 he was in the High Atlas of Morocco.) He also writes of his return to Nuristan in 1965 and briefly of a visit to Ladakh in North-Western India in 1983.
On his way up the Panjshir Valley near the start of his first expedition to Nuristan in 1956, he met Eric Newby and Hugh Carless on the way down, towards the end of their own expedition. He was more complementary about Eric's book than he was about the expedition. Thesiger's expeditions were better planned and better coordinated, someone always knew where they were and where they were going, so they had some back-up, and he took the right equipment. Not everything went smoothly even so, there was one potentially serious incident early on and Thesiger grumbles about locally hired porters and drivers or the food several times. (It is difficult to tell how much of the food was prearranged, offered freely or paid for at the time, so some of these grumbles may not be entirely fair).
The details of the route, descriptions of places he sees and especially the photographs are all excellent. He donated the photographs to the Pitt-Rivers Museum and they can be seen there and now online as well.
My overall verdict on the two books is that anyone wanting to travel in the area should read Thesiger, but that purely armchair travellers should read Newby and look at Thesiger's photographs.
The preface briefly covers two expeditions to Iraqi Kurdistan in 1950 and 1951, then there are more detailed expeditions to Chitral in the Hindu Kush, North-Western Pakistan, in 1952, Hunza in the Karakorum Range, Northern Pakistan, in 1953, Hazarajat, Central Afghanistan, in 1954 and Nuristan in the Hindu Kush, North-Eastern Afghanistan, in 1956. (In 1955 he was in the High Atlas of Morocco.) He also writes of his return to Nuristan in 1965 and briefly of a visit to Ladakh in North-Western India in 1983.
On his way up the Panjshir Valley near the start of his first expedition to Nuristan in 1956, he met Eric Newby and Hugh Carless on the way down, towards the end of their own expedition. He was more complementary about Eric's book than he was about the expedition. Thesiger's expeditions were better planned and better coordinated, someone always knew where they were and where they were going, so they had some back-up, and he took the right equipment. Not everything went smoothly even so, there was one potentially serious incident early on and Thesiger grumbles about locally hired porters and drivers or the food several times. (It is difficult to tell how much of the food was prearranged, offered freely or paid for at the time, so some of these grumbles may not be entirely fair).
The details of the route, descriptions of places he sees and especially the photographs are all excellent. He donated the photographs to the Pitt-Rivers Museum and they can be seen there and now online as well.
My overall verdict on the two books is that anyone wanting to travel in the area should read Thesiger, but that purely armchair travellers should read Newby and look at Thesiger's photographs.
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December 8, 2025I love Thesiger but I have to agree with many of the other reviewers. It is very dry and lacks the deep insight of Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs. Thesiger couldn't speak the local languages and had to operate though unreliable interpreters, which generates some excitement among a series of 'walked here, slept here, passed through so-and-so valley, saw a mountain' descriptions. However, this communication problem also heavily impeded his ability to look into the lives of the local people, if he even wanted to do such a thing. The book lacks the care he had for the lost worlds of the Arabs. I don't think Thesiger saw himself as a writer, this book exists mainly to frame the photography and due to public demand.
October 15, 2012
It was interesting at the begining, but was quite monotonous. There was some sort of tiredness visible in the prose, I somehow felt that the author didn't quite enjoy the later parts of his travel. He does tell that about his travel through Nuristan. I liked the travels through Afghanistan and certain NW provinces like Kafiristan.
May 11, 2022
Based on his travel diaries from his years spent exploring the uplands of Central Asia during the fifties. Thesiger is ex-SAS, so we don't expect any artistic flourishes in his writing; just matter-of-fact hard man kind of stuff. Though he does know a heck of a lot of plant and tree nomenclature (he's not quite so hot on birds).
He gets donkeys and porters organized along the route and starts out every morning before the sun comes up. Well, he is (was) a former special serviceman.
So, off and out at first light in the Hindu Kush with his punkawallahs and Thesiger's happy. Though he does voice a running complaint about the lack of hospitality he was shown by the local villagers along the way, who he says often only gave him watery soup if anything.
On the positive side, he does say a lot of nice things about anybody he happens to like en route, he has good powers of description, and as I say he knows his shrubs.
He gets donkeys and porters organized along the route and starts out every morning before the sun comes up. Well, he is (was) a former special serviceman.
So, off and out at first light in the Hindu Kush with his punkawallahs and Thesiger's happy. Though he does voice a running complaint about the lack of hospitality he was shown by the local villagers along the way, who he says often only gave him watery soup if anything.
On the positive side, he does say a lot of nice things about anybody he happens to like en route, he has good powers of description, and as I say he knows his shrubs.
November 26, 2024
As someone has commented - as dry as dust: The text could be condensed into a repeated "I went there, met someone, expected them to feed/look after us/did that"... Has anyone actually looked at his photographs of the landscape? Some are stunning - of the immensity... his words failed him but his eye captured it all. If only he had joined forces with Newby - as readable, erudite and witty writer as ever, but a rather poor photgrapher.
May 28, 2018
interesting read but not the best travelogue I have read. maybe it's the time it was written
July 19, 2015
I received this book from my Airbnb host in Florence, Italy. It's a light read about a man's travels through Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 1950s and 1960s. The book is somewhat light on stories - the writer is in love with mountains, and travelling mountains, and photographing mountains, so most of the book is descriptive of the landscape and the villages and people he encounters on his travels. He sometimes seems to lack empathy for those he hires, like when one of his companions gets frostbite and then a septic foot (and we never learn what happens to him). However, it's an overall enjoyable book, and I read it in all of four hours, with interruptions. The pictures are also stunning, even in black and white.
This book is registered at BookCrossing.com under BCID 360-13392905.
This book is registered at BookCrossing.com under BCID 360-13392905.
July 30, 2015
Un livre inspirant sur un monde pourtant si proche mais qui est en voie de disparition. Ce récit de voyage est aussi une formidable épopée dans des paysages que l'on devine grandiose. Dans les montagnes d'Asie (titre français) est donc une aventure littéraire qui nous rappelle le sens du mot voyage de belle manière.
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May 31, 2009tedious but informative
January 25, 2010
Wilfred Thesiger, this century's greatest living explorer, recalls his travels among the mountain ranges of Asia
....Oh the life!
....Oh the life!
January 11, 2014
About as dry as an inventory list, but pretty amazing stuff nonetheless. Another reviewer was probably right, I should have read some of his other stuff first.
April 9, 2017
This book is the latest in the Thesiger 'series' that I have read.
I would almost go so far as to say that he is amongst the last of a dying - or dead - breed, the genuine explorer.
While this book did not have the emotional connect that some of his other books had - it is more of a travelogue - it does give an excellent idea of what the life is about in these remote areas.
The photography is outstanding, especially the photography of the people. He has photographed them with sensitivity, and has depicted them with real respect. This is enough reason to read this book.
I would almost go so far as to say that he is amongst the last of a dying - or dead - breed, the genuine explorer.
While this book did not have the emotional connect that some of his other books had - it is more of a travelogue - it does give an excellent idea of what the life is about in these remote areas.
The photography is outstanding, especially the photography of the people. He has photographed them with sensitivity, and has depicted them with real respect. This is enough reason to read this book.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews