The third expedition was even longer, lasting from 1913 to 1916 and taking Stein back to the southern Silk Road sites, to Dunhuang and further east, and thence to excavations at sites near Turfan on the northern Silk Road, especially Astana and Bezeklik. He travelled to Kashgar along the northern route but then, rather than return directly to India, he crossed the Pamirs, followed the Afghan border and then moved to Sistan in western Iran where he carried out further excavations. Although he published a full report of this expedition some years later (Innermost Asia), he did not publish a popular account of this expedition but, in 1933, produced an account of his all three expeditions.