This book is simply breathtaking - both from the breadth of information and from the unbelievable illustrations that fill 670 pages.Quality and definition of the photos are very good, and they consist of everything from artefacts (works of art - wall paintings, ceramics, sculpture etc.etc.), ancient maps, coinage, contemporary photos of Archaeological excavations, and photos of ruins, to period photos of people from all along the Silk Road and stunning landscapes. This is armchair travel and journeys of the imagination on an epic scale.The book is arranged into themes rather than the more common practice of starting at one end of the silk road and finishing at the other, and as such, compares the relative cultures of the lands of the silk roads at any point in time, and highlights their influences on each other. It also highlights artefacts from lands off the silk road but which were part of the consciousness of the empires of the time.There are quotes from ancient records and histories, contemporary poetry and travelogues, and the opinions of historical writers, rendering this a journey full of romance through a multitude of civilisations that brings those distant times so much closer.As well as Susan Whitfield, chapters are also by multiple other authors. I attach some indices to give an idea of the structure of the book.Having received the book today, I have already ordered three further copies for friends.This is the most enjoyable book on art, history and culture that I have bought in the last several years, and that is out of a collection of hundreds of carefully selected books on art and culture that I have collected over the years ....Words can hardly describe the wonders of this tome.PS. I am amending this review and have removed a star. The reason: none of the vast trove of photos of fascinating objects in the book have any measurements, so one has no idea of scale, and to find out where the objects are, one has to go to the small print in the photo credits at the end of the book, where one can occasionally see which collections they come from, but most often, one simply finds the record of some picture agency such as “Scala photo, Florence”.There is also no information regarding where or when objects were excavated: for example, on p. 78, we have “The Parthian king of Hatra, Sanatruq I (r.c.140-180 CE). This statue was destroyed during recent warfare.” No scale, no indication of which museum or even country this was from, where it was excavated, when, or in what circumstances. To me, these are huge omissions, and were it not for the pure romance of this book, I would have knocked at least another star from the grading.