Extremes Along the Silk Road: Adventures Off the World's Oldest Superhighway

by Nick Middleton

The Silk Road cuts through one of the most extraordinary landscapes on the planet. A vast region separating China from the Mediterranean, it is one of the most inhospitable places on earth—a forbidding terrain of hostile deserts, treacherous mountain ranges, howling winds, searing heat, and blistering cold. No stranger to unforgiving territory, Nick Middleton follows in the footsteps of Alexander the Great and Marco Polo, overland from China to Istanbul, surviving, as they did, the life-sapping Gobi Desert, the icy mountain passes of Tibet, and the daunting Steppes of Turkmenistan. Part Oxford professor, part Indiana Jones, Middleton spins together his outrageous feats of endurance with insightful commentary on our planet and its peoples.

Genres: Travel, Asia, History, China, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Nick Middleton is a British physical geographer and supernumerary fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He specialises in desertification.

Nick Middleton was born in London, England. As a geographer, he has travelled to more than 50 countries. Going to Extremes is a television programme for Channel 4 about extreme lifestyles, in which Middleton experiences life in the hostile conditions other cultures must endure. He has appeared on BBC 2's Through the Keyhole.

Reviews

[Anubha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. Every description and anecdote is spellbinding. The author has a certain frankness an innocence and definitely a good sense of humour.

[Pradeep Chandkiran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremes Along the Silk Road by Nick Middleton is an experience. It is a simple account of the climatic extremes along the fabled silk road and a complex chronicle of human resilience. As he experiences the extremes of climate and life along this ancient trade route, from the scorching deserts of Mongolia to the icy Tibet and from the towering sand dunes of China to the rolling steppe's of Kazakhstan, he gives a warm insight into how these extremes have shaped human existence, their culture, their beliefs and above all their sense of purpose.

A note on the comparison between this and From Heaven Lake:
At this point, having finished Vikram Seth's From Heaven Lake just before this, I cannot help but compare the two. While Seth's narrative focuses on the journey itself with the experiences along the way remaining secondary, Middleton's narrative is like an amusing documentary, with the experiences taking a high seat and the journey being secondary. Not to mention, while Seth's writing comes with a fair share of nail-biting twists (he is an exceptional fictionist, remember?), Middleton's writing is almost academic (he teaches geography). :)

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book makes it unnessary for me to go.

[Andrew Wiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative, atmospheric introduction to a world I'm very unfamiliar with. It gave me a better understanding of how and why people live as nomads, particularly in this part of the world while also providing just enough history to give context to peoples current situation.

Easy to read and the full colour photo sections really helped show what the places and people along the route were like.

[Haemanthus]

came here as NCERT Class 11th TB made it criminally short

[Beneath]

I want to read this someday, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get the chance.

[Murali Nair · Rating 4 out of 5]

great read, really well written

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit of knowledge reinforcement for museum training, but mostly an enjoyable travel journey.

[Arsalan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book