Pierre Gabriel Édouard Bonvalot (1853-1933) was a French explorer, author, and legislator. He explored central Asia in a decade when Russia was reaching toward India and France was expanding its empire.

On July 13, 1853, Gabriel Bonvalot was born in Épagne, in the Aube Department. He attended the institute at Troyes. In 1880 Bonvalot was financed by the French government to explore Central Asia. He and a scientist, Dr. Guillaume Capus, entered Turkistan from Semipalatinsk in central Asian Russia. They traveled southeast to Tashkent, from which point they explored the headwaters of the Syr Darya. They moved on to Samarkand and from there traveled to the river Amu Darya where it borders Afghanistan. Returning to Samarkand, they journeyed homeward by way of Bukhara and Khiva.

The goal of Bonvalot's second expedition was to penetrate central Afghanistan. Again the trip was financed by the French government. Bonvalot and Capus were...