After reading the first three chapters of Frances Wood’s The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, I realized how important it is for us to familiarize ourselves with the map of the Silk Road. Even though we have heard about Marco Polo and his epic journey to Central Asia and perhaps know the name of few cities along the Silk Road, most of us are not familiar with the name of most cities, deserts, mountains, and sees in this region. Studying the map before reading the chapters helped me to better follow the story that the author was relating. I could actually follow the journey across the Silk Road form China to Rome.

I really liked the way that Wood incorporated the early explorers’ accounts into her writing. The early explorers’ accounts not only tell the story of the development of commerce between Europe and Asia, but also is a story about interaction of different civilizations and the consequent cultural borrowings that happen as a result of it. Most of these stories are fascinating. They contain detailed accounts of people’s clothes, languages, religions, and so forth. However, judging some of these accounts with today’s standards we realize that most of them are not factual information collected by unbiased fieldworkers. They are rife with stereotypical views and a sense of European superiority. Such a biased description can be found on page 25. Overall, I enjoyed the book’s beautiful illustrations.