Collection: THE SILK ROAD, CENTRAL ASIA, GREAT GAME, AND AFGHANISTAN

It was not only silk, tea, spices and other goods light enough and suitable for arduous transport that travelled the Silk Road. People, religions, ideas and technological improvements spread both ways. How else would Buddhism have arrived in Kazan, Nestorian Christians in Western China and the Muslim faith all along the route? More recent empires, the British and the Russian, wrangled over the last remaining regions and Khanates not under their control, accusing each other of being keen to expand into the other's territory. For some and for far too long Afghanistan seemed to be the right target for numerous invasions. Here you can follow the long journey, with its literary twists and historical turns, into the vastness.