Things to do along the Silk Road

When you think about it literally, the Silk Road was the world’s first international commercial highway; it connected the Eastern and Western worlds in a vast trading network that lasted for centuries - that’s a whole lot of history. But the history goes way beyond a geographical context, or even that associated with the notion of business, and a tour of the Silk Road allows visitors to really grasp the mindset of the world at the time. How did the Chinese manage to keep silk an absolute state secret for so long? And why was the West so utterly enraptured with the fabric when they encountered it? Everything about the Silk Road, it’s beginning, expansion, and the stories of the people that expanded it will grip history buffs and enchant those that might not have known they had an interest.

Throughout the centuries that the Silk Road was active, tribes were formed, conquered and divided; whole new towns and cities built, each with their own distinct personalities and cultural quirks. Though some ethnic groups are being diluted and modernity has crept into otherwise traditional life, the Silk Road is still an extraordinary melting pot where ancient, medieval and modern culture collides.

The architecture of the Silk Road is simply mesmerising. On the one hand you have Samarkand, the mythic capital of Timur, one of Central Asia’s greatest conquerors who flourished during the 13th and 14th centuries. Timur's wishes would transport craftsman all over Uzbekistan to construct grand buildings like the Shahi Zinda necropolis, a mind-blowing structure that showcases some of the most complex, three-dimensional glazed tiling in the whole of Central Asia. On the other hand, Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat was entered into the Guinness Book of Records for having the highest concentration of marble buildings in the world; by night it's an up-lit technicolour marvel that makes Vegas look drab. You have to see it to believe it.

Northwest China’s Taklamakan Desert is the world’s second largest shifting sand desert with a whopping 85% of its surface made up of shifting sand dunes. From Dunhuang you can channel your inner nomad, mount a camel and head to the singing sand dune of Mingsha Shan, a mountain that hums an echo to the sound of sand as you slide down its slopes.