Through Khiva to Golden Samarkand. The Remarkable Story of a Woman's Adventurous Journey Alone through the Deserts of Central Asia to the Heart of Turkestan.

CHRISTIE, Ella R.

Published by London: Seeley, Service & Co. Limited, 1925

About this Item

First edition, first impression, in exceptionally desirable condition. This scarce work is Christie's narrative of her two expeditions to Russian Turkestan in 1910 and 1912, described by Robinson as "objective, articulate, and scholarly". Ella R. Christie (1861-1949) was a keen traveller, and elected fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. "Lured by the exotic names of Samarkand and Bukhara, and the desire to see the lands east of the Caspian Sea, she embarked on her first journey, armed with the necessary permits from the Russian authorities, carrying a camp bed, a spirit lamp and cooking pots, a bag of oatmeal, biscuits and butter, and a samovar for boiling the water. She travelled from Constantinople and the Black Sea across Georgia to the Caspian, and from there by boat and train to Ashkabad, in the Turkestan desert, travelling mainly by train, and on to Merv, where she played tennis with Prince Bariatinsky, manager of the imperial estate, before moving on through Buhkhara and Samarkand on the old Silk Road to Kokand, and reached Andhizan, on the border of Chinese Turkestan. On her second journey, from St Petersburg, she travelled 3000 miles by train to Tashkent and, deciding not to proceed by camel, went by military steamer and then droshky from Samarkand to Khiva, where she was received by the khan in his palace: she was the first British woman, and the first Briton since 1875, to reach Khiva. On all her journeys she kept diaries, wrote long letters to her sister, and took photographs, an activity she always referred to as 'Kodaking'" (ODNB). Robinson notes that Christie "keeps her own personality very much at bay and it is the richness of the country rather than the virtuosity of its visitor that impresses us: the fact that she made this unprecedented journey alone, in treacherous terrain at a treacherous time, is almost taken for granted". Jane Robinson, Wayward Women, 1990, p. 40. Octavo. Half-tone photographic frontispiece and 15 similar plates, mostly illustrated recto and verso, full-page map in the text. Original orange textured cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover with gilt illustration of Bactrian camels (partially from illustration opposite p. 25). 16 pp. publisher's advertisement at end, and one leaf of publisher's prospectus for this work loosely laid in. Minor spotting of edges. A near-fine copy in particularly well-preserved cloth.

Seller Inventory # 157045

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Through Khiva to Golden Samarkand. The Remarkable Story of a Woman's Adventurous Journey Alone through the Deserts of Central Asia to the Heart of Turkestan.
• Publisher: London: Seeley, Service & Co. Limited, 1925
• Edition: 1st Edition