Italian Mummies

Puglia: Death Confraternity
Ferentillo: Spoon River tra gli ulivi
Urbania: Church of the Deads
Palermo: Capuchin Catacombs
Lucedio: le leggende --  in english

Taklamakan

Best Illegal Mummy Photos on the Web

Learn More about the Taklamakan and environs:

The Mummies of Urumchi, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, 1999
An elegantly published, highly readable paperback account of Western scientific analyses of the Taklamakan mummies, with color photos.

The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, Frances Wood, 2002
An absolutely beautiful hard-bound book outlining the history of the Silk Road, with photos and maps.  Frances Wood's expert narrative is very readable and garnished with wry humor.

Monkey, Arthur Waley's translation (ISBN 082130860)
'Journey to the West' is a familiar tale told throughout China, a set of fables about the monk who travels to India to collect Buddhist scriptures.  Waley's synoptic translation of the tale (the original of which spans more than four volumes) was the first version to become available to English-speaking readers; Anthony Yu is working on an unabridged translation, of which I think at least two volumes are complete (though they tend to be hard to find, unless you're at Eastwind Books in Berkeley, CA); and recently someone else came out with a new abridged translation.

The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang, Sally Hovey Wriggins, 2004
Xuanzang is the above-mentioned monk.

Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, Peter Hopkirk, 1980
Haven't actually read this one yet.

Related books:

Genghis Khan: Conqueror of the World, Leo de Hartog, 1989
This is one of those slightly older, probably out-of-copyright books that Barnes and Noble picks up and re-issues, usually at discount prices. This thorough and detailed history is somewhat dry but is at least concise, and a good bargain as books go.

Magic and Mystery In Tibet, Alexandra David-Neel, 1929
Dover Books has re-published this classic, written by one of the first European women to study and travel in Tibet.

Catacombs

Jihlava
Pictures
Callixtus
Roman

If you want more catacombs, visit the urban exploration webring hub.

Miscellaney

Exeter: Underground Passages
Barbados: The Chase Vault Home Page
Pacific: The Palmyra Curse

 

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