Original subtitles

This time, I go treasure-hunting in the mountains of Central Asia.

Gold here? MARINA KOLESNIKOVA: Yes, that's gold.

I test my strength against the locals in the madrassas of Uzbekistan.

Yes! (LAUGHING)

It's a grenade.

And in Azerbaijan, I discover some surprising uses for crude oil.

I don't know if you've seen films like Saw or Hostel.

I'm David Baddiel. I'm on the adventure of a lifetime...

Whoa!

..retracing the steps of merchants, warriors and pilgrims

along the largest trade route the world has ever known,

the Silk Road.

As a writer and comedian, I'm fascinated by people and their stories.

These are amazing.

And the Silk Road is one of the greatest human stories of them all.

ALL: Cheese!

It's got everything. Religion, culture...

How do I look?

..music, war.

Now I want to live that story.

I was born to this.

It will push me to my limits.

(BARKING) Oh, whoa, whoa.

We have got a bit of a situation.

There have been reports of landslides.

This monumental network stretches

across some of the toughest terrain on Earth.

It's like a sadistic army exercise.

The Silk Road witnessed the rise and fall of empires

and shaped the modern world as we know it.

The Silk Road is the network of ancient highways

that connected China to Europe.

It made fortunes for the merchants that travelled it.

But it also transformed the economies of the lands that it crossed,

especially here in Central Asia.

1,500 years ago, traders from China would have been heading that way,

towards Istanbul, laden down with silk.

Meanwhile, they'd be meeting traders coming the other way from Europe and Persia,

and they'd be carrying fur and wool and wine.

But actually, here, slap bang in the middle of these two enormous markets,

the Silk Road was creating its own wealth.

And it was all down to the natural treasure hidden in these hills.

In Central Asia,

the Silk Road lies on top of a geological hotspot.

Continental plates clash, raising a chain of mountains

and bringing oil, gemstones and precious metals to the surface.

In the 5th century, this mineral wealth

kick-started a civilisation of super-traders called the Sogdians.

The Sogdians, in fact, got stinking rich

selling precious metals and gemstones by the side of the Silk Road.

But the main source of their fortune can still be found in these hills today.

I'm heading off-road

on a track first built by Soviet engineers during the Cold War.

The Red Army needed uranium to fill their nuclear warheads,

so they mined the same mineral-rich hills

exploited by the Sogdians in the 5th century.

This is one of the tunnels the Soviets left behind.

High-visibility jacket.

I thought I'd be wearing this to fix a gas main outside my house,

but it's something more exciting than that.

This mine was abandoned over 40 years ago,

so mining expert Marina Kolesnikova is here to keep me safe.

OK? Mm-hm. Off we go.

Off we go. (CHUCKLES)

And geologist Altinbek will hopefully find me some treasure.

OK, where... Where are we going? (LAUGHS)

Oh, we're going into the depths, into the very bowels of the Earth, if that suits you.

We're going into the bowels of the Earth? We are indeed. OK.

Wow, amazing. And it's a little bit mucky here.

What are all these logs here?

The logs collapsed first?

Right. Is there still some support?

There's no support.

OK. I hope it doesn't flood.

(KOLESNIKOVA AND ALTINBEK SPEAKING LOCAL LANGUAGE)

No, it's OK. It's OK?

It's OK.

And I should make it clear, I can't get mobile phone reception here,

so if this cave collapses in on us...

Don't know. Call Interpol.

60 years ago, Red Army miners found uranium throughout these hills.

But they also came across gruesome evidence

that in Sogdian times, not everyone was mining by choice.

(KOLESNIKOVA SPEAKING)

They used small children to mine?

Rearing deformed kids for manual labour

shows just how thirsty the Silk Road traders were for precious metals.

And the narrower and deeper the seam,

the smaller the child slaves would have needed to be.

Finally our torches pick out the secret to Sogdian wealth

amongst the dull brown rocks - dark streaks of metal-rich ore.

What is that? (ALTINBEK SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

(KOLESNIKOVA SPEAKING)

OK, so it's copper all along the seam here?

(ALTINBEK SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

(KOLESNIKOVA SPEAKING)

Gold here? (KOLESNIKOVA SPEAKING)

Careful, David.

(ALTINBEK SPEAKING) Oh, that looks amazing.

(ALTINBEK SPEAKING) Pyrite. Mm-hm.

Yeah, there's different types of sparkle it gives off, doesn't it?

Marina thinks there could be up to three grams

of pure Kyrgyzstan gold in this rock,

worth around £60 in today's market.

Thank you.

The first Sogdian miners set up base camps on the flat valley floor,

and it's here they refined and crafted their precious metals.

Their camps were close to trade routes,

where passing merchants and nomads took an interest

in the fine Sogdian metalwork,

trading it for their own exotic goods.

Eventually, trading precious metals became so lucrative

that simple Sogdian forges morphed into something very different.

Caravanserai, it's what you call your service station of nowadays.

People used to stay here... Service station?

Yes, people used to stay here overnight.

Really? They would dine, wine,

get their hair dressed, get their fortune told,

whatever, you name it.

Hang on, that's more exciting than a modern service station.

A service station with a hairdresser

and a fortune-teller, really? (CHUCKLING)

That's what they described

in the ancient sources that still remain.

Let's see what the archaeologist says.

This particular service station, or caravanserai,

owes its origins to the 5th century.

And amongst the rubble is evidence of the original forge

that first drew travellers to this roadside stop.

This is the smelting place? (SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

There was a furnace in the middle of the caravanserai

where metal ores were purified,

and workshops around it for shaping the metal into tools

and for crafting other useful items such as pots.

Archaeologist Musa Osmonovich tells me the development

from smelting plant to service station was inevitable

because of the quantity of goods being produced at these sites.

(SPEAKING LOCAL LANGUAGE)

We've been through areas along the Silk Road

that feel like there's a proper commercial culture developing.

But this is the first time we've been in a settlement

which feels like this is where things were being made, stuff was being traded,

and a proper system of commerce was going on.

Sogdian metal was so popular

that traders flocked to Sogdiana from East and West,

and hundreds of caravanserai sprang up along the Silk Road

to keep up with the demand.

The money raked in by these roadside sites travelled west,

funding lavish Sogdian cities.

That's where I'm heading next, but it's not going to be easy.

So, where we're actually going is Bukhara in Uzbekistan.

Now, that is a Silk Road journey, and there would have been

all sorts of problems for the early Silk Road travellers.

We also have problems, but they're slightly different.

This border here, between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, is lawless,

and we've been advised by the Foreign Office

not to try and cross it.

There is no direct flight from Bishkek to Bukhara.

Rather than take this flight,

which would take just over an hour, probably,

we have to fly Bishkek to Almaty,

then we have to fly Almaty to Tashkent,

er, and then Tashkent to Bukhara, and that is about 15 hours.

So, erm, the airlines are notoriously delayed often,

so, in fact, we may not make it at all.

I'm David Baddiel,

and I'm exploring the riches of the Silk Road in Central Asia.

I've risked life and limb hunting for gold in Kyrgyzstan.

Is there still some support? Er, nope, there isn't.

Now I'm heading to Uzbekistan, to Bukhara,

a city built on Silk Road wealth,

but to get there, I have to begin by flying to Almaty,

which is in Kazakhstan - the opposite direction.

We have got a bit of a situation,

because we're hoping to get a late-night flight to Tashkent in Uzbekistan,

but we don't actually have visas for Uzbekistan.

Er, we are promised visas when we get there,

but we are arriving at nearly midnight

in the hope that some government officials

will have got out of bed on a Sunday night

to present us with those visas.

(BADDIEL SPEAKING)

It took all night...

Tashkent airport, 5:43 in the morning.

..but our visas did eventually arrive,

and we're finally on the way to Bukhara.

But it isn't all plain sailing from then on.

So, I'm in my hotel room at last in Bukhara, in Uzbekistan.

Erm, it's taken it out of me. It's taken it out of us, actually.

The director and the soundman of this programme have both got ill

over the journey and have had to take to their beds.

I'm a tiny bit concerned,

because this region was one of the stops for the Black Death

as it leapfrogged west along the Silk Road

from China to Europe in the 14th century.

And that is not the kind of bug you can shake off

with a couple of paracetamol and a good night's sleep.

We're going to make do and mend.

This is being shot by the assistant director, Henry...

Hello, Henry.

..who's doing a great job. He's recording the sound,

and we're still going to have a look at Bukhara and find out what's going on.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

The Sogdians built Bukhara around the 5th century

as a trading centre for Silk Road gold.

300 years later, Muslims took the city

and they kept the lucrative jewellery markets alive,

using the proceeds to build elaborate mosques

and over 100 Islamic universities.

(PLAYS LIVELY TUNE)

(DILSHOD SPEAKING)

Yeah, but bolstered by gold and silver?

My guide Dilshod tells me Bukhara was divided into specialist markets,

each with its own ornate dome.

Trade domes? Trade domes, yes. That's a trade dome? Yeah.

Here, local goods were exchanged for silk from the east.

This used to be the jewellery-makers' dome.

These days it's mostly used for selling textiles and tourist trinkets.

But you can still find gold if you know where to look.

This is my friend.

I saw this guy wandering through the market...

(GREETS IN ARABIC)

..and felt we should see him, as he has the best smile in Bukhara.

Yeah, that's it. (LAUGHTER)

His name is Bahtiyor

and his favourite game is Guess the Tea.

What's in this one? Anise? Yes.

Anise. Cardamom? Yes.

Er, I've forgotten what else.

(WHISPERS) Cinnamon. Cinnamon. (LAUGHS) Yes.

Cloves, cloves. Cloves. Mint? Yes, yes.

Er, and that's five. There's six? Seven. Seven. Oh, er...

(WHISPERS) Basil, basil. Basil. Basil.

I think they're picking up the whispering. (BOTH LAUGH)

And... No, I don't know. Er, ginger?

(WHISPERS) Saffron. Saffron, yes, definitely.

Seven delicious ingredients and not one of them tea.

One is enough, thank you. Thank you very much.

I love Bahtiyor.

For me, he represents the spirit of this ancient market.

Traders like him kept wealth flooding through this place for centuries,

and all that commerce drew in merchants

from both ends of the Silk Road,

forcing many different cultures to live side by side.

With most of my crew still laid up in bed,

I've decided to spend the rest of the day

exploring how different religious groups lived together

within the same city walls.

So that's the point in time the Jewish and Muslim community

lived in harmony in Bukhara? Yeah. Yeah. So it can be done.

I'm intrigued that a Jewish community existed at all

in such a clearly Islamic city,

and it turns out there's still a synagogue here today.

Can I come in? (MAN SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

Thank you.

I've always thought my own Jewish roots

belonged in Eastern Europe,

but perhaps there's a little piece of Bukhara in there, too.

Twins. It's marvellous. (CHUCKLES)

This is Bukhara's Jewish ghetto,

where fine textiles were traded in the shadow of mosques and minarets.

Hello. (CHUCKLES) (SPEAKS OTHER LANGUAGE)

He's pleased to see me.

Until the 1970s, tens of thousands of Jews lived here,

but today the population barely breaks 100.

Thank you very much.

(BOTH SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)

To find out why,

I'm having lunch with local community leader Raphael El Natanov.

In Judaism, there's a blessing for everything.

It's an OCD thing. There'll be a blessing for the washing of hands,

for the eating of bread, a blessing for the wine. You'll see.

(MEN CHANTING IN OTHER LANGUAGE)

Raphael's ancestry here in Bukhara stretches back centuries.

Is that your father or grandfather?

He looks like you, he looks like this family.

RAPHAEL: Grandfather. Grandfather.

(SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE)

He tells me that whilst Israel was established in his grandfather's time,

nobody could go there because they were trapped behind the Iron Curtain.

But when Communism fell in the early '90s,

the Bukharan Jews were finally free to travel,

and most of those who went didn't come back.

Raphael decided to stay

to preserve the Jewish traditions in Bukhara,

one of which seems to be drinking vodka at lunchtime.

Oh, well, all right, cheers.

It's a new one on me.

Thank you very much for your hospitality

and for telling me about the Jewish community in Bukhara,

and for preserving the memory of our people in Bukhara. Cheers.

(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

Spasibo. Spasibo. Spasibo.

I'm interested to see what happens to the interview after this.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Oh, my goodness me.

Hello, I'm in the toilet of the Jewish people's house

and I just want to say I'm as drunk as I've been for a long time.

They gave me four vodkas, and it felt impossible not to accept them.

Smile!

(CAMERA CLICKS)

The final stop on my whirlwind cultural tour

is the pinnacle of Islamic architecture

here in Bukhara, the Po-i-Kalyan.

It's really one of the most extraordinary places on Earth,

I think, and something else extraordinary, if you follow me.

This complex of mosques and religious schools

was first built in the 12th century,

and then rebuilt 300 years later with Silk Road riches,

after Genghis Khan passed through town

and razed the original to the ground.

I have weird dreams sometimes about a kind of Arabic, Islamic,

Middle Eastern town that I often think is clearly where,

genetically, my ancestors were in the 16th century,

and I wonder if it wasn't here,

because it feels incredibly familiar in a weird way.

In a quiet corner of the main complex,

I find a spectacle as old as the Silk Road.

This is Kurash, the Uzbek national sport...

..and Dilshod tells me it's much more than just a game.

From the age of three or four,

boys start to learn about Kurash because it gives them special spirit

like braveness, to be stronger, to prepare themselves for the future life.

Oh!

Filled with a very different type of special spirit,

I've agreed to have a go.

Thank you.

Right.

Here's a 51-year-old Jewish man, slightly drunk on vodka,

about to take on a Kurash champion.

I want a nice, clean fight.

All right, so I get hold of him, yeah?

Hold of him here? Yeah, and then...

Kurash feels an awful lot like judo to me.

It may have been another Silk Road import

from the far east, like football,

but there's no time to think about that when there's a fight to win.

(EXCLAIMS) Yes!

(LAUGHING) Thank you.

Can I do that again? I enjoyed it. Let's do that one more time!

Towering over this ancient scene is the Kalyan minaret,

the only part of the original complex left standing by Genghis Khan.

Five times a day, a crier would climb these 105 steps

to call the faithful to prayer.

But this tower also had a dark side,

as convicted felons were said to be marched up it

and thrown to their death.

The minaret is normally closed to outsiders,

but Dilshod's got me special permission

to see the view from the top.

Whoa.

(CHUCKLING)

We have made it! Well done, Dilshod.

Yeah? Well done.

It's been an extraordinary day here in Bukhara.

It started with illness, went into an alcoholic stupor,

and it's ended with this unforgettable view.

The sun is setting in the west, and that's where I have to head now

in my continuing journey along the Silk Road,

because I've seen a lot of gold here,

but there is a different type of wealth,

a different type of resource,

that carried on the movement of commerce

along the Silk Road in that direction.

And I believe it's in Azerbaijan,

so that's where I'm going next... but downstairs, first of all.

Coming up, I hit the bright lights of Baku in Azerbaijan

and splash out on a spa day, Azeri-style.

I don't know if you've seen films like Saw or Hostel,

but let's just have a look in here.

I'm David Baddiel,

and I'm following in the footsteps of Marco Polo along the Silk Road.

I've unearthed the mines...

Gold here? Yes, that's gold.

..that brought wealth to Central Asia.

I've seen how fashion, religion...

Cheers.

..and culture moved east and west.

(EXCLAIMING) Yes!

(LAUGHING) Thank you.

I've now crossed the Caspian Sea and arrived in Azerbaijan,

the gateway to the old Persian empire.

And things are looking up.

So, I bring good news,

which is that the crew of this programme are all better now.

Looking at them, I was pretty convinced that both of them,

my director and sound man, did have the Black Death.

Turned out it was Kyrgyzstani tummy.

So you're fine, aren't you? You're well.

Phil's well. You're fine, aren't you, Glenn?

Excellent, so now we're back on track. Thanks for caring.

Here in the Persian empire,

alchemists used science to create new products for trade

along the Silk Road.

And the wealth generated from these unique goods

built vast cities, some of which still thrive today...

..like this one, Baku.

So, this is Baku.

And as you can see,

it's maybe the one place on the Silk Road

that is economically still in full swing.

It's a boom town, and that's because the product that was discovered here,

that powered its boomness, is still being used today.

The source of Baku's great wealth

is the same stuff that's allowing me to cross the Silk Road a lot faster

than the ancient traders did on camels...

..oil.

And on the outskirts of Baku,

you don't have to search hard to find it.

The shifting geology of this region creates earthquakes,

and these tremors crack the ground,

allowing black gold to bubble up from deep below.

My guide to this surreal urban landscape

is historian Parvin Ahanchi.

Can we just see over here,

there's actually oil coming out of the ground?

I've never actually seen oil, as it were, in the wild before.

I've only ever seen it in garages in cans,

and it's something quite exciting about it,

seeing it just seeping out of the earth.

Every so often it actually bubbles up,

and I don't know if that excitement is just learnt

from seeing films like There Will Be Blood

and imagining oneself finding these and thinking,

"I've struck oil!" Er, but it is weird,

it's got a weird energy to it that draws you to it.

Today, nodding donkeys pull oil from deep underground,

but in the days of the Silk Road,

the Persians took a more hands-on approach.

AHANCHI: David, would you like to try?

To try and harvest oil? To collect some oil.

Like they did in the old days. Yes.

Yes, I don't mind. Can I sell it as well?

Yes. OK, good.

It's mine, is it? Yeah, you're welcome.

I'm slightly frightened, because I have also been informed

that near oil often is quicksand, and so, therefore, I might disappear.

Er... Oh! Can I just do that? Yes, and you have to...

Scoop it off the top of it, more like cream?

Yeah, if you take from surface, it is more weight. Wow.

Yeah, off the surface, yeah? So it's water underneath, is it?

So it's not just oil in this pool. Sure.

You can see, though, it's, like,

really thick on the top, isn't it? Yeah.

It is very like scooping cream off the top of milk.

In the 9th century, Persian alchemists discovered

that heating the oil and condensing the fumes

created a highly flammable liquid they called white naphtha.

It was mainly used for lamps.

But naphtha was handy for the battlefield, too.

(AHANCHI SPEAKING)

What's it called?

Tight neck. OK.

Oil, right.

It's a grenade? It is a grenade.

Really?

Yes, although it looks more like a... It looks like a grenade.

Today, oil-filled grenades are a thing of the past,

and the explosive oil of the Caspian Sea

is, of course, mainly used in motor cars.

But another much less flammable kind of oil

comes out of the ground around here, too,

and I've heard it has amazing medicinal properties.

This oil is called Naftalan,

and thanks to the legend of a camel and a medical miracle,

people flock to clinics like this one.

I want to find out what all the fuss is about,

so I've booked myself in for a treatment.

(SPEAKING IN LOCAL LANGUAGE)

Dr Hashim Hashimov tells me Naftalan oil

can apparently cure anything, from arthritis to impotence.

All I have to do is strip off

and a nurse will be along to see me shortly.

Thank you very much. (CHUCKLES)

Erm, I don't know if you've seen films like Saw or Hostel,

but let's just have a look in here.

All of these things look to me like torture implements

of a very exotic standard.

(LAUGHS) I'm sure I've had very bad nightmares

set in rooms like this. Still, here we go!

(EXCLAIMS)

I should point out this oil is hot.

According to Azeri legend,

the story of the sick camel goes something like this.

Hello.

2,500 years ago,

a Silk Road trader called Sarwan was forced to stop around this area

when his favourite camel fell sick with a skin disease.

The animal couldn't go on,

so Sarwan left it here to die amongst puddles of oil.

When the trader returned a month later,

he found the camel alive and well, and covered in oil.

Sarwan concluded that the oil bath must have saved its life,

and ever since, people have attempted to use Naftalan

to cure their own irritating skin conditions.

I'm just lifting up the shorts now,

to make sure that all parts of me get the Nafta treatment.

Hm.

(LAUGHS)

After 10 minutes, it's time to get out,

but that is easier said than done.

I imagine old people do this a lot for rheumatism and arthritis.

The danger of them slipping and breaking a hip is very strong.

And then it's the near-impossible task

of washing all the oil away.

I feel like a pelican

in the aftermath of a very bad oil spill...

OK, how do I turn it on? Push, push. Push!

..in the care of a particularly grumpy clean-up volunteer.

(SPEAKING IN LOCAL LANGUAGE)

She's really cross with me. Can she be less cross with me?

The nurse has left me on my own now

because she wants me to take off these shorts,

and she doesn't want to be confronted with my private parts,

particularly not when they're black and oily.

I agree that's probably frightening.

Go away.

So, that was an interesting experience.

Trouble was, as I was lying there in the bath,

all I could think about was how my dad used to smoke in the bath,

which wouldn't have been a good idea in this case.

I don't know if it's done me any good,

but I could refer you to our old mate Marco Polo,

who knew about this practice and about this place.

He writes, "There is a fountain of oil.

The use made of it is not for the purpose of food,

but as an unguent for the cure

of cutaneous distempers in men and cattle..."

I don't think you'd get much cattle in that bath, but there you are,

"..as well as other complaints, and it is also good for burning.

In the neighbouring country, no other is used in their lamps,

and people come from distant parts to procure it." As indeed I did.

So that suggests to me

that Marco might have come here to use this oil as an unguent

for the cure of his cutaneous distemper,

but I reckon Marco never had to put up with an Azeri woman

in a terrifying face mask shouting, "Nyet! Nyet!"

as he tried to take off his pants.

I'm heading back to the bright lights of the big city...

..because tomorrow it's an early start in the black markets of Baku,

in search of contraband from the Caspian Sea...

MAN: Very good, very good.

..and then a dash to the border

to see how the great secret of the Silk Road was finally broken

in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains.

It's the key to how the Silk Road works.

I'm David Baddiel, and I'm making my way through Central Asia,

unearthing the natural riches of the Silk Road.

I've seen nuggets of gold in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan...

Thank you.

..and bathed in black gold...

I should point out this oil is hot.

..from the urban oil wells of Azerbaijan.

It was oil that brought Silk Road traders here in the first place.

It was oil that made Baku into a boom town,

but wherever there's oil, there's money,

and where there's money, people start trying to make more money.

And so all the traders here quickly wanted to discover something else

that they could buy and sell, and they did discover something

that was also black and also very expensive.

Baku sits on the western shores of the Caspian Sea...

..the largest inland body of water on Earth.

And it's home to the beluga sturgeon,

famous for producing one of the most expensive

of all Silk Road goods, caviar.

In the 15th century,

this fishy delicacy was being exported to Europe by the shipload.

Today, strict fishing quotas

make it pretty hard to get hold of caviar in Baku.

But I've been tipped off that the local bazaar

has a thriving black market for the stuff.

The directions are pretty straightforward.

Straight through hardware...

This is the most not-me market I've ever been in.

..turn right at the budgies...

..and then keep an eye open

for the not-so-subtle, secret fishy signposts.

So, this enormous mother of a fish is a sturgeon,

and this, of course, is caviar.

One thing you might notice about this Azerbaijan real caviar

is that it's not. It's seeds in the back,

black seeds, and really, what it is, it's just a signal

that there is caviar available if you know where to look.

So it's time to find a man.

I understand you can get me some of the black stuff?

I don't want it cut with anything, herring roe or, you know, plaice roe,

I want it to be high-quality, 100% sturgeon.

A man who doesn't want to show his face on camera...

..but who does have a fridge full of caviar.

(SPEAKING IN LOCAL LANGUAGE)

OK.

Beluga. Beluga.

Thank you.

Very good, very good. Very good.

Although it fetches top dollar today,

when caviar first appeared on the Silk Road in the 14th century,

wealthy Venetians said it tasted like salt and dung and flies.

And so how much is that?

120 manat.

120 manat, so that's, like, $120 for 113 grams.

Mm. It's very, very good caviar.

But then wealthy Europeans started using it

to show off how rich they were...

Mm.

..and have been gorging on beluga caviar ever since.

OK.

It's very nice, but I don't think I'll have it.

I think I'm going to stick to the lumpfish roe

that I can buy from my local corner shop for 4.99,

and which I know I'm never going to get addicted to.

Thank you very much, though. Thank you.

Looking around the market,

it makes me wonder why some foods cost so much more than others.

And I think the Silk Road may have a lot to do with that.

One thing about the Silk Road,

and I do slightly take issue with the Silk Road about this,

is that it was the first time that people developed a taste for rarity,

because food, and, indeed, precious metals and silk itself,

became valuable because they were rare.

Because they were from parts of the world

that were previously unknown or hard to get to.

And as they travelled,

this sense of the exotic is what gave them value.

But actually, particularly with food,

I think rarity is something you can't taste in the mouth.

With food, we should only think about what it tastes like.

The value of food should rise in proportion to the taste.

And thus, chips should cost $120 a pot

and caviar should cost £2.99 and be wrapped in newspaper.

I'm leaving Baku and heading northwest.

My final destination in Azerbaijan is Sheki,

a historic city in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains.

The landscape here is probably the greenest

and most fertile I've seen since we left Xi'an in China.

It was there I learnt the recipe for silk -

masses of mulberry leaves and a tiny worm.

Oh, they really go for the mulberry.

In ancient times, the secret of silk was so guarded,

revealing it to foreigners was punishable by death.

But in the 6th century, the secret got out.

Legend has it that a pair of monks were paid off

to smuggle silkworms out of China

in hollowed-out walking sticks.

And it wasn't long before western cultures

all along the Silk Road, from Sogdiana to Persia,

were trying their hand at making silk.

Only one place really cracked it, and it was here in Azerbaijan

that the temperate climate and the skills of local craftsmen

combined to produce silk which could rival China's.

That silk is still produced in Sheki today.

Natella Movsumova runs the local factory.

So, can you give me a very simple explanation of how all this works?

(SPEAKING IN LOCAL LANGUAGE)

Natella tells me silk cocoons are boiled

when they arrive from local farms.

This first step kills the worm inside and unravels the cocoon.

Several strands of silk are then twisted together on large bobbins

to create a single thread ready for weaving.

Even though we're now in an industrialised area,

and it's become more of a sort of mechanised process,

there's still something fairytale about it. If you look at this,

it looks like Rapunzel has been put on a bobbin.

It still looks really magical.

This factory was built by Stalin in the 1930s,

and much of the silk-weaving today is still done on Soviet-era machines.

Even at this level, it seems quite precise, silk production.

She seems to be cutting individual strands.

The weaving may be modernised, but the finish is still done by hand.

MOVSUMOVA: He's boiling water.

And it's easy to imagine this same careful process of washing and rinsing

being carried out in 15th-century Sheki...

..a time when premium Azeri silk

was finally overthrowing the dominance of Chinese silk

in the markets of Renaissance Europe.

(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE) OK, yeah. So, even though that's wet,

you can feel that that's become silky.

It's taken a while to see the journey of the silkworm

and its cocoon to, actually, this,

which is silkiness, which is the feel of silk.

And I'm very pleased to finally be

at the stage of the journey where we get that.

Soon these will be bedsheets for a Russian oligarch in Mayfair.

So the secret of silk was out.

Traders could now buy top-quality merchandise

from much closer to home.

But surprisingly, that wasn't a death sentence for the Silk Road.

From Constantinople to Western China,

caravanserai continued to go from strength to strength,

because they evolved.

Even here in Sheki, if the market didn't want silk,

they could buy gold, oil, caviar.

There was always something exotic to tantalise the passing trader.

For example, sugar became one of the principal commodities

to be traded along the Silk Road around this time,

and actually, it has a kind of parallel history to silk,

because it was the Persians who,

having got the original idea from India,

found a way of refining sugar

that was itself incredibly economically successful.

And they guarded it, in the same way, as a secret.

It's an interesting thing

that sugar and silk and wine and fur and things like that

are what powered the Silk Road,

because what you realise after a while is it's all luxury items,

it's all things that we don't actually need.

Kind of surplus things.

And that's important because that makes it modern,

and that leads to conspicuous consumption,

which is what leads to later stages of capitalism.

So the Silk Road, at some level, is all about luxury.

By the way, this is how they drink sugary tea

in Azerbaijan, like this.

It does give you some sense of the traditions here, but also diabetes.

I came to Central Asia to see the natural treasures

that brought wealth to this middle section of the Silk Road.

But what I've learnt is that the Silk Road wasn't just selling goods.

It was selling dreams.

Next time, the final leg of my journey takes me to Georgia.

It's a slightly nerve-wracking climb.

I confront the canine guardians at the wild gateway to Europe.

(BARKING)

That's an enormous dog.

I discover the surprising secret to modern warfare.

Apparently I'm going up there into a pigeon cave

to collect pigeon poo.

I can't remember where I signed up to that.

And in Turkey,

I discover how the greatest trade route of all time

finally came to an end.

When it fell, you're talking about

a wholesale spiritual and cultural transformation.

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