Toward the end of the 19th century and into the first decades of the 20th, scientific and archaeological expeditions to the region of Eastern Turkestan´s Silk Road discovered numerous cave temples, monastery ruins, wall paintings, as well as valuable miniatures, books and documents. Explorers from Europe, America and even Japan were amazed by the art treasures found there, and soon their reports caught the attention of an interested public around the world. These relics of the Uyghur culture constitute today major collections in the museums of Berlin, London, Paris, Tokyo, St. Petersburg and New Delhi. The manuscripts and documents discovered in Eastern Turkestan reveal the very high degree of civilization attained by the Uyghurs. This Uyghur power, prestige and civilization, which dominated the Central Asia for over a thousand years, went into a steep decline after the [Manchu] invasion of their homeland.