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Turkestan - the great landmass of Central Asia and Western China - is an intriguing meeting point of civilizations. Four major invasions - Greek, Arab, Mongol and Russian - together with Persian, Turkic and Chinese culturual influences, have made their mark on this vast and sometime forbidding region. The Great Silk Route ran to the West through it, while nomad and urban peoples combined over the centuries to produce a cultural flowering under Timur and his successors in the late medieval and early modern period, through a rich profusion of artistic and architectural styles and ornament. In this comprehensive account of the culture and history of Central Asia, Edgar Knobloch describes the main centres of our human civilization. He spices the text with quotations from the works of contemporary travellers, while providing an expert's commentary on the archaeological, architectural and decorative features of the sites he describes. The stunning and evocative photographs are...Pages of Treasures of the Great Silk Road :
