For more than a thousand years traders trekked the Silk Road from Europe across Central Asia to China -- land of the Khans, of silk and tea and spices. The trade was between the ends of the road -- Rome and China -- but the ancient cities of Central Asia took the best of it, and developed legendary cultures.

Tashkent. Samarkand. Balkh. There were no flying carpets or genies, but there were enough wonders that credulous Europeans could and would believe anything.

When the Khans fell warlords took power and much of the traffic failed, but the route has been re-opened and truckers from Europe can now trade with the heirs of the Celestial Empire. Writer Andy Turnbull rode with English truckers who crossed Europe, Russia, part of Siberia and Kazakhstan to deliver a computer to the Bank of Uzbekistan in Tashkent.

Road to Tashkent tells the story of that trip, of modern trucking and of the camel caravans that blazed the trail and built the world we know.