For decades, even centuries, Central Asia has been out of focus, a blank on the map. Even today, to those not in the know, the centre of Asia is synonymous with the middle of nowhere.
Yet for two millennia, known variously as Transoxiana, Turkestan or Tartary, these lands were a major thoroughfare for Silk Road traders, nomadic empires and migrating invaders, tying together Europe and Asia on the Eurasian steppes. The backdrop to this drama is a vast arena of desert, steppe and knotted mountain ranges that stretches from the Caspian to China, Siberia south to the Hindu Kush.
Central Asia’s storybook history, from Alexander the Great to the khans of Khiva, litters the land at every turn. You’ll get more than a whiff of the Silk Road when standing downwind of an Uzbek kebab seller and glimpse more than a hint of a nomadic past in the eyes of a Kazakh moneychanger...
