Places to Travel in North Central Asia

North and Central Asia - a view from the "Roof of the World" - lonely stretches of the Pamir Plateau, Tajikistan's awesome mountain ranges, the cold and wild mountain forests of Kyrgyzstan, the sweeping steppes of Kazakhastan, Mongolia's desolate Gobi Desert, the impossible terrain of strife-ridden Afghanistan, the minarets and mosques of Islamic Republics.

The magic and mystique of Samarkand, Tashkent and Bukhara; the romance of laden caravans travelling down the Silk Route through Central Asia... the Cossacks of the Siberian heartland and the marauding hordes from Mongolia..... images that clash with the Christian culture of the Eurasian hinterland. A thousand years of oscillating power struggles culminating in chilling images of the Cold War... And then, the collapse of the Soviet Union - a landmark event that changed the history, the geography and economy of North and Central Asia.