The Silk Road refers to those trade routes that extended across the Central Asian steppe from ancient times until the 15th century. It was a route not only of silk, but also jade and other goods, not to mention art, literature, and religion. Central to the Silk Road were the powers of the steppes – those Turkic and Mongolian groups that, when strong, permitted the road to operate. War and conflict, naturally, disrupted trade, and it was the collapse of the Mongol Empire – and the rise of European ship-based trade - that led to the Silk Road’s decline.

Samarkand was at the Silk Road’s heart, called by the writer Ibn Battuta “one of the greatest and finest of cities, and the most perfect of them in beauty.” Its history is long - Alexander the Great conquered the city in 329 BC, and the city then passed through Persian, Mongol, and Turkic hands over the centuries. While Genghis Khan destroyed the city in 1220 AD, it was to revive in the 14th century under Timur the Lame – Tamerlane, the Khan’s descendant and warrior that, in all his conquests, never faced defeat. Timur founded the Timurid Empire, a Turkic empire based in Samarkand. The Timurids in turn became the ancestors of the Mughal Empire, which dominated India before the arrival of the British.

At its height, Samarkand was a place of diverse peoples and ideas. While Islam was the religion of the Timurids, and the mosques of the city are famous worldwide, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Manichaeism all were present in the city. Samarkand was conquered by the Russians in the 19th century and remained a part of the Russian (and, later, Soviet) empires until Uzbekistan became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union. In addition to its heritage, the city remains today as a transportation hub and a center for silk weaving.