In his later expeditions he became the first to map large parts of the Tibetan highlands but, like Nikolai Przhevalsky before him, never reached his ultimate goal: the then forbidden city of Lhasa.
In his later expeditions he became the first to map large parts of the Tibetan highlands, and conducted mapping and meteological research in Eastern Turkestan and Mongolia. However, like Nikolai Przhevalsky before him, Hedin never reached his ultimate goal: the then forbidden city of Lhasa.