From the workshops of Central Asia to the tombs of China: scholars, silk and cities that grew rich on trade between East and West.
Born near Bukhara, he wrote The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia that was a standard text in the Islamic world and Europe for centuries.
A crossroads city on the Silk Road, famed for its markets, scholars and the monuments of the Timurid era.
Three monumental madrasas face a central square, covered in blue tilework and geometric patterns.
Silk threads are tied and dyed before weaving, which gives the cloth its blurred, feathery patterns. Margilan is a traditional centre.
Thousands of life-sized clay soldiers were buried to guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of unified China.
The imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, with hundreds of buildings arranged along a strict central axis.