Good evening.

A major new exhibition at London’s British Museum shines a light on the Silk Roads - the ancient trading routes that once criss-crossed a vast array of countries, linking the east to the west.

As our writer Caroline Eden says "the term 'Silk Roads' is a convenient label for sprawling geographies, fuzzy-edged spiritual territories and a timeline stretching from roughly 200BC to AD1400.” Silk was but one precious item that travelled along vast interlocking networks through deserts and mountains, crossing countless borders.

A regular traveller to central Asia, Caroline describes a journey from Tajikistan into Uzbekistan, visiting places where “you don’t need all that much imagination to picture how it once was”. From sprawling bazaars to mosaic-covered mosques, from tea made with classic Silk Roads spices like cardamom and saffron to huge tombstones carved from jade, there are countless treasures to unearth, surrounded by landscapes of soaring peaks and apricot fields.

Though much has changed over the centuries, much remains the same. “You’ll find people haggling over the price of gold and bolts of beautiful ikat fabrics in rainbow colours, just as they have always done,” says Caroline. No wonder connecting the Silk Roads dots became addictive, drawing her back to the region year after year.

Elsewhere Caroline picks 10 of the greatest Silk Roads sites, from hilltop İshak Pasha palace in Turkey to the oasis city of Dunhuang in China - places sure to inspire wanderlust.