I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognized by others. The long history of heroism with me,

Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

The year 629 AD, the Taclamakan Desert, Western China.

A fugitive breathed heavily as he stumbled across one of the lowest and most inhospitable places on earth.

Teclamacan itself means once you get in, you don't get out.

It's a vast topographical marker where it's not easy to travel in either direction.

You have to know where you are going.

Across the north there's one route and across the south there's another route. You can't cut across the desert. If you don't know where you are going to get water,

then you will have a huge problem. The man stumbled past the skeletons of many others who tried

and failed to cross the desert's northern route before him.

The sun scorched his skin.

The storms are quite common.

It's a very dry place.

You don't see any people at this stage.

There are no places nearby that you can see.

His feet and throat ached.

Four days ago, he'd lost his water bag. It was a miracle he was still alive,

but he knew he might not be for much longer. So he must be experiencing these kinds of physical problems that somebody traveling this vast distance in the 7th century might be encountering.

...