A Carpet Ride to Khiva: Seven Years on the Silk Road
- Authors
- Alexander, Christopher Aslan
- Publisher
- Icon Books
- Tags
- fair trade , iran , biography , islam , central asia , history , embroidery , corruption , travel , dyeing , carpet
- ISBN
- 9781848312715
- Date
- 2010-07-01T00:00:00+00:00
- Size
- 0.66 MB
- Lang
- en
Chris Alexander originally travelled to Khiva, a remote walled city in Uzbekistan on the route of the ancient Silk Road, to write a guidebook. But he stayed, mesmerized by a world of silk and forgotten 15th-century carpet designs - discovering indigo blue, madder red, pomegranate gold and the subtle shades of life in a desert oasis. Alexander's entrancing travelogue sees him stripped naked at a former Soviet youth camp, crawling through silkworm droppings, tackling a carpet-thieving mayor, distinguishing natural dyes from sacks of opium in Northern Afghanistan, bluffing his way through My Heart Will Go On for Uzbek TV and seeking sanctuary as an anti-Western riot consumed the Kabul carpet bazaar. The result is an unforgettable true story of a journey to the heart of the unknown.