An expanded translation of the important 1996 German account of the archaeological/historical work  done in the 1980s and 90s in the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uighurs Autonomous Region. Earlier work done in sites along the trade route known since the 1870s as the Southern Silk Road is related to the history of an area now more or less uninhabited but formerly the site of major civilisations.  Maps and 150 colour photographs of artefacts and mummies illuminate the heritage of a past largely unknown outside the world of academic scholarship.