First published: London : Folio Society, 2002. Maps on lining papers.

1. 'A ceaselessly flowing stream of life' -- 2. Coiled dragons and filmy fleeces: jade and silk -- 3. From Greece and Rome to China - and back again -- 4. A people abandoned by heaven: the Xiongnu and trade during the Han dynasty -- 5. The spread of trade and religions: Tocharians and Sogdians -- 6. The fashion for all things Central Asian -- 7. The caves of the thousand buddhas: Buddhism on the Silk Road -- 8. Tanguts, Mongols, Nestorians and Marco Polo -- 9. A parterre of roses: travellers to Ming China and Samarkand -- 10. The great game and the Silk Road -- 11. Asia held them captive in her cold embrace: explorers on the Silk Road -- 12. Trophies and tiger entrails: hunting and theorising on the Silk Road -- 13. Securing specimens: Aurel Stein -- 14. An end to excavation: Pelliot, von Le Coq and Warner -- 15. The baby general: travel on the Silk Road in the 1930s -- The Silk Road today.