As Central Asia rapidly opens up to the West there is a need for something more than a guidebook. Kathleen Hopkirk, who first visited the area nearly 30 years ago, has drawn on the accounts and observations of travellers over the centuries to bring to life its turbulent past and set the scene for its no less turbulent present. Stretching 2000 miles eastwards from the Caspian Sea to China, Central Asia has witnessed some of the most extraordinary events in history. Overrun by waves of barbarians, including Huns, Turks and the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan, it was also the meeting point of a host of cultures and faiths. Criss-crossed by the camel trails we know as the Silk Road, its caravans carried ideas as well as exotic merchandise between China, India and the eastern Mediterranean. Its fabled cities of Merv, Samarkand and Bokhara became synonymous with wealth, splendour and mystery, as their remoteness made them inaccessible to all but the most adventurous. By the 19th century, when its deserts and mountains became the chessboard for the Great Game, Central Asia was rarely out of the headlines. But then, when the Bolsheviks and the Chinese Communists took it over, it became a closed region, one of the least-known on earth. Only now does it once again find itself in the spotlight, following the collapse of Soviet rule and the creation of five entirely new countries. "A Traveller's Companion to Central Asia", arranged alphabetically for the user's convenience, is a concise handbook to the region which also offers an epic account of this region.