Between these covers, the millennia of mercantile and cultural exchange along the Silk Route are celebrated by travellers and writers from Marco Polo to Sven Hedin, from William of Rubrick to Ella Maillart. Kathleen Hopkirk has spent a lifetime researching this vital heartland, traversed by five inhospitable deserts but united by ancient chains of trading oases: from the Buddhist Empire of Kushan to the scholarly Islamic center at Bokhara. This mysterious homeland of Tartars, Turks, Mongols, Uzbeks, Uighuers, Tajiks, Scythians and Samaritans gave the world terrifying conquerors of the likes of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. Later it became the locus of the Great Game, a rivalry for influence in the area between the empires of Russia and Britain, played out by spies, ambassadors, and travel writers for 150 years, itself a continuation of the old cultural rivalry between Persia and China for the soul of this vast region. With black & white plates.