All language subtitles for David Baddiel on the Silk Road 3of4 Hidden Treasures 720p

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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