AN EXPEDITION INTO THE HEART OF CENTRAL ASIA Inspired by the great adventurers of the Victorian era and intrigued by the history of the Great Game-the century-long struggle between Britain and Russia to control Central Asia-Philip Glazebrook set out on his own journey to the fabled cities of Tashkent, Bokhara, Samarkand, and Khiva. Along theway he encountered remains of two other empires: the Soviet Union, whose spreading disorder was brought home by a terrifying attack in his Moscow hotel room, and the domain of Tamerlane, the thirteenth-century conqueror whose memory and monuments still dominate the imagination of the regionsinhabitants Blending his own experiences with tales from earlier travelers, Glazebrook captures the color and fascination of a region where Europe and Asia have long met but never merged, a crucial crossroads from the days of the Silk Road to the present.