Belching smoke, our Silk Roads "special" sped shrieking through the Asian suburbs of Istanbul, past knots of wide-eyed, waving children fascinated by the unusual sight and sound and smell of an enormous black coal-fired steam locomotive. It was an exciting start to an extraordinary journey. In the weeks that followed we were to travel the longest "road" on earth: 9,600 kilometers (6,000 miles) across Turkey, the southern Soviet Union and China, from one end of the ancient Silk Roads to the other.

En route, we would see unique sights: Cappadocia's fantasy landscape of "fairy chimneys" and China's Great Wall. We would visit legendary caravan cities - Bukhara, Samarkand and Kashgar - and meet exotic people: daring Kazak horsemen and dazzling Uzbek dancers. We would cross unfriendly frontiers normally closed, and be feted in cities usually forbidden to foreigners.

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198804/the.silk.roads-a.history.htm

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