The Ninjas are the stuff of myth and legend in comics, film and electronic games. But once they were real, the medieval equivalent of the SAS: spies, saboteurs, assassins. Could they fly? Make themselves invisible? In a journey to the heartland of the ninjas, the author takes you from their origins over 1,000 years ago, through their heyday.

The creator of the world s greatest empire is one of history s immortals. He is also at the heart of one of the greatest mysteries -- how and where was he buried? Its solution might, conceivably, reveal a treasure on a scale not seen since the discovery of Tutankhamen s tomb.

"From the Hardcover edition.""

The authoritative biography of the great Mongol ruler, by the author of Genghis Khan and Attila.
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree"
Kublai Khan lives on in the popular imagination thanks to these two lines of poetry by Coleridge. But the true story behind this legend is even more fantastic than the poem would have us believe.
Kublai Khan inherited the second largest land empire in history from his grandfather, Genghis Khan, and which he extended further, creating the biggest empire the world has ever seen; from China to Iraq, from Siberia to Afghanistan....

What would Genghis have done? Lessons in leadership from history's most successful (and ruthless) conqueror.
Genghis Khan has a very strong claim to be the greatest leader the world has ever seen. As a teenager he was an outcast, fleeing enemies on a mountain in northern Mongolia, an exile, a nobody. Yet it took only twenty years for Genghis to build the largest land empire in history: four times the size of Alexander's, twice the size of Rome's. How did he do it? What lessons does his life reveal about the nature of leadership? What is "greatness" in leadership? What traits did Genghis...

The Terracotta Army is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time. 8000 life-size figures of warriors and horses were interred in the mausoleum of the First Emperor of China. They are thought to represent real members of the First Emperor's army. This is the remarkable story of their creation.

Respected historian and travel writer John Man tells the remarkable story of the world's most famous traveler--Marco Polo--and the moment when East met West for the first time Marco Polo's late 13th-century journey from Venice, through Europe and most of Asia, to China is one of the most audacious in history. His account of his experiences, known simply as The Travels, uncovered an entirely new world of emperors and concubines, great buildings--"stately pleasure domes" in Coleridge's dreaming, huge armies, and imperial riches. He revealed the wonders of Xanadu, where the...

From Kurosawa's epic "Seven Samurai" to the figure of Darth Vader in "Star Wars", to Manga comics and video games, the figure of the fighting samurai inspires us. This book lets us discover the truth behind the legend.

The untold story of the world's greatest empire and the creation of modern China.
Genghis Khan is one of history's immortals: a leader of genius, driven by an inspiring vision for peaceful world rule. Believing he was divinely protected, Genghis united warring clans to create a nation and then an empire that ran across much of Asia. Under his grandson, Kublai Khan, the vision evolved into a more complex religious ideology, justifying further expansion. Kublai doubled the empire's size until, in the late 13th century, he and the rest of Genghis's 'Golden Family' controlled one fifth...