An international team of researchers from the United States, Germany and Kyrgyzstan embarked on an expedition to the Central Tien-Shan, one of the largest and highest mountain ranges in the world, over the summer.

The expedition aspired to visualize environmental changes in the region and aimed to decolonize and de-center the existing narratives of exploration and discoveries in Central Asia. Looking at historic photographs and maps, the expedition team intended to identify what was “seen” and “unseen” by explorers in the Tien-Shan a century ago.

The 2024 expedition was inspired by a research project “Landscapes of Exploration” conducted by Tatiana Saburova, a senior lecturer in the Department of History, and supported by the IU Institute for Digital Arts and Humanities, Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute and the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs.

A member of the 2024 expedition holds up a photo taken in 1902 and compares locations. Photo by Patrick BaryllaThe international team was formed in a collaboration with ExpeditionXplore and followed the footsteps of the scientific expedition of 1902 led by a Russian botanist Vasilii Sapozhnikov and a German geographer Max Friederichsen. The 2024 expedition reached remote mountain passes and valleys in Kyrgyzstan, searching for the rivers and glaciers pictured in the photographs taken more than a hundred years ago to map their locations.

Several historic photographs of 1902 were retaken in summer of 2024, and they will be incorporated into Saburova’s digital project “Space and Nature” along with other findings and observations from the expedition. A German filmmaker Patrick Barylla, a team member, is currently working on a documentary “Echoes from the Tien-Shan” about the expedition. First screenings have been scheduled in Germany this fall.