Shadow of the Silk Road

<p>To travel the Silk Road the greatest land route on earth is to trace the passage not only of trade and armies but also of ideas religions and inventions. Making his way by local bus truck car donkey cart and camel Colin Thubron covered some seven thousand miles in eight months--out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey--and explored an ancient world in modern ferment.</p>