1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hedin, Sven Anders

HEDIN, SVEN ANDERS (1865- ), Swedish geographer and explorer, was born at Stockholm Feb. 19 1865. He was educated at Stockholm and Upsala universities, and afterwards studied in Germany at Berlin and Halle. In 1885-6 he made a year's journey through Persia and Mesopotamia, and in 1890 was attached to the special embassy sent by King Oscar of Sweden to the Shah of Persia. The same year he visited Khorasan and Turkestan. Sven Hedin is, however, best known for his explorations in Tibet, which place him in the first rank of modern Asiatic explorers. In 1893 he started from Orenburg, on the Ural river, with the intention of crossing the Asiatic continent to Pekin. His journey traversed a large area of unexplored country (see 16.991; 26.925). In two other expeditions (1899-1902, 1906-8) he added considerably to our knowledge of the country and thoroughly explored the sources of the Sutlej and Brahmaputra or Tsanpo (see 26.925). Many honours were conferred upon him as a result of his discoveries. Besides receiving medals from various geographical societies, he was specially honoured by the King of Sweden, and he was awarded an hon. K.C.I.E. by the Indian Government.

During the World War Sven Hedin was a prominent supporter of the German cause, and his book With the German Armies in the West (1915) gives an account of his experiences as a guest of the German army. Among his publications are Journey Through Persia and Mesopotamia (1887); Journey Through Khorasan and Turkestan (1892); Through Asia (1898); Central Asia and Tibet (1903); Adventures in Tibet (1904); Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia 1899-1902 (6 vols. 1904-7); Transhimalaya (1909; vol. iii., 1913); Overland to India (1910); From Pole to Pole (1911); Bagdad, Babylon, Nineve (1917); Southern Tibet (1917); Eine Routenaufnahme durch Ost (1918-9).