The first travel of Nikolai Przewalski began with a trip to the Eastern Siberia on November, 20 1870. It took him almost four years to complete his topographic survey of the area near the Ussuri River; He also made some meteorological observations and a complete description of the Ussuri region. He has made some significant amendments to the map and gained valuable expeditionary experience. Now there were no obstacles to travel to Mongolia and Northern Tibet, just as he wanted. Thus he travelled there in 1876. He was the first European who reached the Lobnor Lake, and opened a previously unknown ridge named Altindag, he also defined the exact boundary of the Tibetan Plateau and underlined the fact that the actual beginning of the Plateau is 300km further north than it was previously thought. Unfortunately, he failed to penetrate deeper into this mysterious country. However, after 3 years of waiting, the Russian explorer reached the coveted plateau. It was his most productive journey with many discoveries – the watershed between the Huang He River and the Yangtze River, the largest river in China. Przewalski put on the map a previously unknown Columbus ridge, Moscow ridge and Russian ridge, one of the peaks of which he called Kremlin. Subsequently, a new ridge named Przewalski was added to the mountain system. Przewalski made some discoveries during all of his expeditions, the discoveries that would bring a glory to any zoologist or botanist. He described a wild horse (Przewalski’s horse), wild camel and Tiberian bear, several new species of birds, fish and reptiles, and also hundreds of species of plants… In 1888, he organized another expedition to Tibet to achieve his next goal – to get to Lhasa. However he failed to finish this expedition. On November, 1 Nikolai Przewalski died from typhoid fever on the shore of the Issyk-Kul River. Before his death he willed to be buried here, on the lake shore, dressed in the battle-order. Friends fulfilled the last wish of a prominent scientist and traveler. There are ten steps cavated into the rock lead to the grave of Przewalski, they symbolize the number of trips he has made. Also a monument has been built at the grave of Przewalski in Karakol area while the other one has been built by the Geographical Society in St. Petersburg.
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