The Adventure Circle Presents: The Younghusband Lecture
Monday 10th November at 18.30 | The Drawing Room | £10.00 per person
Kazakhstan – Exploring the Northern Silk Road
The Silk Road has enchanted travellers and writers for centuries, ever since the writings of Marco Polo first revealed its secrets to his European readers in the 13th century. Thanks to him, we have all heard of Samarkand and Bokhara, and of their architectural and textile wonders. Of course, the Silk Road was never a single highway, but was made up of routes that criss-crossed the vast deserts, mountains and steppe lands of Central Asia.
But somehow, in the midst of all this, a vital part of the Silk Road has been almost forgotten. Who now remembers the lost cities of Otrar, Sauran, Kishkala, Syganak or Zhankala? Or Timur’s great city of Turkistan? Or the great petroglyphs at Arpauzen? These ancient cities and sites along the Syr Darya River in Kazakhstan were once just as important as their better-remembered neighbours 400 miles to the south. What is sometimes known as the Fergana–Syr Darya Corridor remains, to this day, almost unknown in Europe.
In this talk, travel writer and author Nick Fielding will explain the significance of the Northern Silk Road, which stretched from the Pamir Mountains all the way to Astrakhan and Muscovy in the far north-west of the steppe, and will hopefully inspire you to travel along this remarkable route. Adding to the evening, the Kazakhstan Embassy will join us with a captivating exhibition of ancient maps, along with stunning large-scale photographs that bring the region’s breathtaking landscapes to life.
Over the past 40 years, British author and journalist Nick Fielding has travelled extensively in remote parts of Central Asia and Siberia, often on horseback. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, he is the author of Travellers in the Great Steppe: From the Papal Envoys to the Russian Revolution and South to the Great Steppe: The Travels of Thomas and Lucy Atkinson in Eastern Kazakhstan, 1847–1852, as well as several other books.
For many years, Nick worked in Fleet Street. He was a senior reporter on The Sunday Times, covering the aftermath and implications of the 9/11 attacks and reporting from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Far East. He was also chief investigative reporter for the Mail on Sunday, where he authored a number of world exclusives.
In 2003, Nick co-authored Masterminds of Terror, which examined in detail the planning for the 9/11 attacks, and which has become the standard reference work on how the operation was carried out. It has since been translated into seven languages.
His previous book, Defending the Realm: MI5 and the Shayler Affair, revealed a catalogue of mismanagement and lost opportunities in Britain’s domestic intelligence service.