All language subtitles for David Baddiel on the Silk Road 4of4 Road to Ruin 720p

This time
I'm in the Caucasus,

a vital crossroads
on the Silk Road...

It's a slightly nerve-wracking climb.

..risking life and limb on the hunt
for one of its deadliest weapons...

That's an enormous dog.

..discovering hidden cities
beneath bloody battlefields...

(EXCLAIMS) Wow.

..and uncovering the secret

that destroyed the greatest
trade route in human history.

That's a lot of pigeon poo.

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

Whoa! (LAUGHS)

..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 CHEER)

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.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.
(DOG BARKS)

We have got a bit of a situation.

There've 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.

I'm in Georgia,

which has been described
by historians as the edge of empires.

China is about 8,000km back that way.

That's where it all began, and now

2,000km that way lies home.

Well, not North London, but Europe,

Istanbul, and the end
of the Silk Road.

The Silk Road's network
of interconnected routes

snaked through the wilds
of Central Asia...

..but its success attracted
the attention of two giant empires,

who vied for its control...

..the Roman in the west,
and the Persian in the east...

..and in the middle was Georgia.

One of the things about Georgia is
throughout its history,

it's been invaded.

Georgia, in order
to protect its trade,

built a lot of fortified castles,
and that's one of them there...

..and now I'm gonna try
and climb up to the top of that.

This is Khornabuji Castle.

It's just one of over 500 fortresses
built in this region.

OK, this bit's a bit tricky.

The castle was a crucial link
in Georgia's defences

against the Roman
and Persian superpowers

as they battled to control trade
in the 7th century.

To find out why it was so important,
I need to get to the top.

It's a slightly nerve-wracking climb,
but the view does make it worth it.

The castle's strength
didn't come from its walls,

but rather its sky-scraping position.

I made it.

Not the easiest thing
I've ever done in my life...

..but this, this was the land bridge

between East and West.

Towering an incredible
half a kilometre over
surrounding lowlands,

the castle's watchmen
could see for 40km

along the disputed stretch
of the Silk Road.

They could spot an attacking army
a day's march off -

plenty of time to organise defences.

That's why it was so valuable...

..why it was so fought after.

Prime strategic locations
made castles like these

highly sought-after prizes

in the battle for Georgia
and the Silk Road...

..but it wasn't just
the vantage point

the invading Persian
and Roman armies wanted.

These fertile plains
of the battlefield held a secret.

Trade along the Silk Road, of course,
is all about imports and exports,

and Georgia had a particular export
that it was keen to protect.

I'm gonna go and have a look
at that now,

and I'm looking forward
to seeing this particular export

because I need a drink.

Long before even Silk Road times,

the rich soils of this vital
land bridge proved ideal

for making a highly-prized commodity,

wine.

American John Wurdeman
married into a Georgian family

and bought this ancient vineyard
in 2007.

He's continuing the old
wine-making tradition

in the land where it all began.

John, since I've been in Georgia,
I've seen a slogan a couple of times.

It says, 'Georgia,
the cradle of wine.' Right.

Is that true? Was wine born here?

There's been ancient evidence
of wine-making in Mesopotamia,

in Egypt, in Iran,
but nothing so old.

There's been an unbroken tradition

for over 6,000 years
of making wine in Georgia.

It was here in these plains

that wild grapes were first
domesticated into a crop...

..and not only that, soon after,
the Georgians invented the technique

of fermenting grapes into wine.

The Silk Road carried these skills
east, reaching as far as China,

but in the birthplace of wine,
the battle for trade raged on.

Right now, the vineyard we're in,
it was a battlefield.

Georgians believe that
the best fertiliser for a vineyard

was the blood, sweat, prayers,

and remains of their ancestors that
fought to keep this country whole,

and that all of the invading,
the Persians, the Arabs,
the Mongols,

are contributing to the vineyard.

Using the battlefield's
fertile soils,

John is recreating the wines
of the old Silk Road.

Here, we don't make wine,
we raise wine,

just like we raise our children.

Give birth to wine. Yes.

Well, the earth gives birth
and we're just custodians...

I see, you're the midwives.

John's invited me into
the construction of his new cellar

to reveal how the first wines
were made.

This is how they sit in the earth?
Yeah, this is how they sit,

and this will be the floor
of the winery over here.

The wine is made in giant clay pots
called kvevri.

They're buried up to their necks
in the ground

before crushed grapes
are poured inside.

The pot is then covered
and left to ferment and mature.

So, here's a wine-maker.

The opening of a kvevri
is a big deal in Georgia...

(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

..and John has given me the great
privilege of taking part today.

John filled this kvevri
eight years ago.

None of us know what state
the wine is in now.

Oh, my God. Yeah, it's really full.

Look at that, that's eight years
it's been in there.

Hopefully, it's not the world's
biggest bottle of vinegar.

(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

It's fantastic.

Yeah, it's incredible.

Like so many Silk Road wine merchants
before them,

John and his team
are understandably relieved.

It is fantastic.
Tastes absolutely fantastic.

Delicious.

Before I leave
the birthplace of wine,

John has invited me
to a very special celebration

that traces its origins back
to the times of the Silk Road.

This is a supra.

Literally meaning 'tablecloth',

it's a village gathering
held to toast travellers,

and would have been a highlight
for many a weary trader
arriving into town.

Wow. Look at this. Amazing.

The most important person
is the toastmaster.

The first toast I'd like to drink
for being grateful.

It's customary for a supra to have
20 or more toasts.

For friendship.

For peace. Peace.

May our families be strong.

For love.

It's said that the average Georgian

will spend several hours a week
attending these feasts.

Sometimes the big ones
go on for days.

I'm beginning to worry that
my carefully-planned schedule

along the Silk Road
may have hit a delay.

After several toasts
and glasses of wine,

I'm ready to join in
with the supra tradition.

There is something that has
brought me here and which, in fact,

has brought the wines of Georgia to
and from here and all over the world,

and it is the reason that I'm here,
and it is the Silk Road,

and so I thought perhaps
we should celebrate it

because it's the reason why
we're all here.

So I give you the Silk Road.

The Silk Road.
(TOASTS IN LOCAL LANGUAGE)

But wine isn't the only thing
Georgia exported along the Silk Road.

(ALL SINGING)

As Christianity spread
along the trade route,

this Georgian style of singing,
called polyphony,

was assimilated into its ceremonies,

and it's believed this is how
Christian hymns may have originated.

Amazing.

Let's wish David happy,
healthy journeys,

full of adventure and spice.

Onwards and forwards. Thank you.

Great journeys.
Thank you very much.

(ALL TOASTING)

I hope I won't regret the merriment,
because tomorrow

I'm going to be heading off-road

on the trail of yet more
Silk Road secrets.

I'm David Baddiel,
and I'm in Georgia.

So far, I've discovered that
this ancient battlefield

was the birthplace of one
of the Silk Road's greatest exports,

wine.

Right now, the vineyard we're in,
it was a battlefield.

Now my long journey west takes me
through the Caucasus Mountains.

Since we've come up
into the mountains

it's started raining quite heavily.
There've been reports of landslides,

rock falls
and mud avalanches and stuff,

so the actual pass across
the mountains may be blocked.

I don't know, but we're gonna
give it a go anyway.

Back in Silk Road times,

traders needed to avoid the warring
Roman and Persian empires...

..so if they wanted to reach Europe
and its markets,

it meant having to take their chances

in the treacherous
mountain terrain...

..and that's where I'm heading now.

This route through the mountains
may have been used for centuries,

but that hasn't dulled its danger.

This is the Silk Road
at its least silky.

I think one has to ask,
philosophically,

when is a road no longer a road?

And I think we may have
reached that point now.

(CAR HONKS)

In the past 12 months alone,

eight people have been killed here
in landslides...

..but hopefully that's not
gonna stop me in the search

for my next Silk Road revelation.

One of the things that was
very important along the Silk Road

and was actually
a very valuable commodity

was dogs, it turns out,

because you needed something
to protect yourself with

along the Silk Road,

and dogs were very useful
for protection

both against thieves
and against wolves and bears,

and there was actually
a particular dog

that came from this area
called the Alaunt,

which was the great war dog
of the nomadic tribes.

'He attacks by
running at the intruder
and knocking them to the floor

before attacking them
when they are down.' OK?

'And he knows where
the most vulnerable part
of the victim's body is,

and will aim for there.'

Although the ancient Alaunt
is extinct,

I've heard their descendants
can still be found in remote farms

that depend
on their protective instincts,

but with Mother Nature against us,
the chances of finding one look slim.

I'm, sort of, 85% certain that
we're either going to get stuck...

..mauled by a dog or a bear,
or just fall off the edge and die,

but it is almost worth it
for the incredible landscape

in this part of Georgia.

But then, after hours of searching,

my local guide Nick assures me he can
hear something in a nearby farm.

(DOG BARKING)

I mentally wave goodbye
to my vulnerable parts.

(CHUCKLES) I'm terrified.

OK, that's an enormous dog.

Hello.

Is it chained up? MAN: Yeah.

Hello. Erm...

Can I ask you about your dog?

Is it a Caucasus shepherd?

(SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE)

Yeah, it's a pure
Caucasian shepherd, yeah.

It looks very dangerous. Is it...?

What do you use the dog for?

These dogs can weigh
an amazing 90kg...

..and it looks to me like
they are the descendants

of the ancient war dogs

brought to battle by kings
and emperors

fighting for control
of the Silk Road,

and there's another one here.

That one is very, very aggressive.
This one is more aggressive.

Oh, my God.

That is a terrifying dog.

Tell me, have you
sold the puppies? Yes.

Where did you sell the puppies to?
Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan.

So the trading of these dogs
still goes on along the Silk Road?

(TRANSLATES)

They may be perfect guard dogs,

but I'm glad to put some distance
between us.

OK. All right.

Thank you very much, sir. Madloba.
Thank you. Let's go.

After such a rough ride,

I could certainly do
with an energy lift about now,

Silk Road-style,

and I've been told
the mountains are home

to one of the earliest versions
of confectionery.

Definitely that's gonna help.

These sweet treats,
called Churchkhela,

are an ancient Silk Road ration
that kept weary travellers fuelled,

and were considered the perfect use
for Georgian grapes

that didn't make the grade for wine,

and I'm about to get a master class
in how to make them

from traders Dalli
and her daughter Dinara.

Grape juice with flour,
boiled, and then you add walnuts.

It actually tastes not very sugary.

Can I have a go?

The high sugar content
from the grape juice

gives the Churchkhela a shelf life
of over six months,

ideal for long journeys
along the Silk Road...

..and with an estimated
2,000 calories per piece,

they'd certainly keep you going.

Thank you. Thank you.
Madloba, madloba.

Refuelled on Silk Road sweeties,
my journey continues west,

past the Caucasus
and onto the home stretch...

..but for travellers
along the Silk Road,

things were not about to get
any more peaceful.

Clear of the mountains of Georgia,

I follow the route
into the firing line
of a new emerging force,

Islamic tribes.

They wanted control of
the Anatolia region, today Turkey,

the merging point of several branches
of the Silk Road.

During the time of the Silk Road,

this was an absolutely vital
trade intersection.

As a result, it had to find ways
of protecting itself

from the various bandits
and oppressors

who would essentially
want to overrun it...

..but unlike some of the other places
that I've been to,

the people here found a way
of protecting themselves

and their merchandise
that used the landscape.

This is Cappadocia,
where strange cliffs,

the remains of volcanic eruptions,

stretch over an area three times
the size of London.

The people here discovered the rock
was soft and easy to carve,

so began cutting homes
into the landscape...

..but it's what lies beneath these
rocks that is the most extraordinary,

a giant network
of 200 underground settlements.

I've gained access
to one of the largest,

Kaymakli.

Guide Sevim Karabiyik
is helping me discover

what life was like inside here.

This is like a labyrinth.

These were no mere subterranean
apartment blocks.

Supplied with water, air,
and well-stocked with food,

these giant bunkers
were built for siege.

(EXCLAIMS)

Wow. This is incredible.

It's a ventilation shaft.

In times of danger, up to 5,000
local residents and traders

would escape underground.

So, they packed their permanent
storage places here,

and they were living up there,
coming down here to get their stuff

when they needed some food
or something,

but when they were alarmed
about the enemy approaching,

all they had to do
was to grab their kit,

get down, block the entrances.

Kaymakli's residents could survive
for six months without going outside.

Built around a series
of ventilation shafts,

its network of 100 tunnels
spanned eight floors

and connected 64 rooms...

..as its residents carved stables,
wineries, kitchens,

and even churches
into the siege-proof complex.

Key to survival was security,

and this included an ingenious
Indiana Jones-style invention.

This millstone door here
was carved in situ.

They carved this column here,

and the aim was to block the passage
coming from the upper level.

Through the hole,
people on this side could see

what was happening on the other
side, could spear the enemy.

And taunting them
as well, maybe? Yeah.

Even the narrow tunnels were designed

with the aim of defending the people
from attackers.

Imagine you're the enemy
trying to attack this place.

How would you handle that tunnel?

Badly. I handled it quite badly
anyway and I'm not an enemy.

It starts to become very difficult
to carry any kind of weapon.

Do you think you would be able
to wear your armour? No.

And one person at a time. Yeah.

Those narrow, winding tunnels was
a big part in their defence system.

I don't know if it's because of
it being a siege situation,

but there appears to be no hierarchy,

there appears to be
no bigger room for the king,

or no bigger room for the lord
and smaller room for the servants,

which is what you would find
in a castle, normally.

That's right. I've never thought
about it. That is the case.

Kaymakli was first excavated
and opened to the public in 1964.

Now, on the outskirts
of the city of Nevsehir,

an exciting new underground city
has Turkish archaeologists abuzz.

We've secured access
as the first film crew

to join the archaeologists
as they investigate this site.

It was discovered by
construction workers in January 2013.

A team of experts are using
cutting-edge technology

to assess just how important
this find is.

So, what about this,
what's happening here?

They're photographing the place and
taking measures of the place, 3D.

In 3D?

These early renderings
of the measurements suggest

that there could be
as much as 7km of tunnels

going 37 storeys underground.

If true, this will make it
the biggest underground city

ever discovered along the Silk Road.

Most of the tunnels
are yet to be explored,

but I've been allowed into one that
even the archaeologists themselves

have yet to examine.

So, there's a network of tunnels
through here...

..and there seems to be a reluctance
for anyone to actually go in here,

so I'm gonna go by myself.

Been nice working with you.

This is quite exciting
because this room hasn't been

cleared yet by the archaeologists,

so I just came in here
by myself, really.

The network carries on
through here...

..and it's getting, I mean,
genuinely Indiana Jones-ish here.

I don't want to meet the spider
that produced those things.

Looks like you could catch a fish
in them rather than a fly.

I'm no archaeologist, but these
tunnels share features with others

I've been seeing in my explorations.

I reckon this is a burial chamber.

It's got a very developed arch,
plus these stones here,

so I think this was potentially
a burial chamber,

maybe for the enormous spider.

It will take the team years
of painstaking work

to fully uncover
this secret underworld.

Once it's done,
this incredible city will be open

to all modern-day travellers
along the Silk Road...

..but secret bunkers are not
the only mysteries

that lurk beneath
this fairytale landscape.

There was one that threatened to blow
the whole Silk Road apart.

(BOOM)

I'm David Baddiel, deep in the alien
underworld of Cappadocia in Turkey.

(EXCLAIMS)

Wow.

This is home to a network
of underground cities

that protected over 100,000 people

from marauding tribes
along the Silk Road...

Imagine you are the enemy.
How would you handle that tunnel?

Badly. I handled it quite badly
anyway, and I'm not an enemy.

..but yet more secrets to survival
are hidden in these hills.

Yesterday it became clear to me

that living in Cappadocia meant that
you were constantly under siege,

which is why they found ways
of using the landscape

and burrowing into the rock
to protect themselves,

but obviously, one of the things
about being under siege
for a long time

is you have to find ways to survive,
ways to feed yourself,

and so I'm going now to find out

about the secrets of how
they managed to do that.

While the volcanic landscape is ideal
for building bunkers,

it's useless for cultivating crops...

..as local chemist Savas Kurkcu
explains to me.

Salvation for food-growers
came from an unlikely source.

For fertiliser? Fertilisers.

Yes, one of the most
valuable resources

along the Silk Road was pigeon poo.

So valuable, in fact, that the locals
carved the birds custom-built caves,

with some ingenious designs.

Every farmer painted his own
unique design on his bird cave

to ensure his pigeons
would find the right toilet.

Oh, is that right?
Yeah, their own house.

These ancient ways
are still used today,

and I've been invited to join
local farmers Bekir and Hussain

to collect this precious cargo.

So, apparently I'm going up there

into a pigeon cave
to collect pigeon poo.

I can't quite remember why
I signed up to that.

Maybe I turned over two pages
at once, I don't know.

If I can just show you that ladder,
it's quite near the edge.

The entrances were deliberately
kept high and very small

to keep predators like foxes and
weasels from being able to get in.

There's quite a lot of these...

(SAVAS SPEAKING)

That's where the pigeons would nest?

So, how old is this, do we think?

But breathing in pigeon-poo dust
can be dangerous.

OK, we're in a cave,
we're putting masks on.

Let's be honest,
we look like Al-Qaeda.

OK, so, there's quite a big pile
of poo here.

Owing to the relatively small amount
of fertiliser each bird produces,

back in Silk Road times, collections
were made only once or twice a year,

and that's still the case today.

Whoa.

That's a lot of pigeon-poo smoke.

This is the sort of thing you might
see in a middle-class household
in a vase,

and he's just picked it
from his garden

and uses it to brush up
the pigeon poo,

as farmers have been doing
for centuries.

With a bumper yield of fertiliser,
our morning's work is done...

..but while pigeon poo was celebrated
for its agricultural uses,

it also harboured a dark,
destructive secret...

..that ultimately led to the downfall
of the Silk Road.

All right,
so the same thing that the soil
decomposes the droppings into

can also be extracted... Chemically.
..for explosions? Yeah.

So, how did they turn pigeon poo
into gunpowder's magical ingredient

potassium nitrate?

My pal Savas is helping me see
if I can do it

with some kitchen-sink chemistry.

Oh, my God, it's a bit hot.

I think that's not
very well balanced.

Do I put that in there? Yeah, yeah,
you can. This water? Yeah.

One of the things
it's very important not to do

is mistake it for muesli.

It's a Chinese discovery. Gunpowder
was invented by the Chinese,

and presumably came here
on the Silk Road.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
11th, 12th, 13th century.

The Chinese first invented gunpowder
in the 9th century.

They got most of
their potassium nitrate
from bat droppings...

..but like silk production,
it was a closely-guarded secret,

until, that is, the Mongols invaded
China and brought the secret west.

As traders returned home
with the knowledge,

the question was,
could they extract potassium nitrate

from their huge stocks of pigeon poo?

So, we filter that.

I'm beginning to worry our technique
might be lacking some sophistication.

That doesn't look right.

Right, we've let it dry
under the sun,

and you see the crystals
are being formed.

Yeah, and those are crystals which
are basically potassium nitrate.

That is the essential constituent
of gunpowder? Exactly.

That drop is war.

But potassium nitrate alone
isn't gunpowder.

You're gonna add
some other ingredients to this

to make it into gunpowder, OK? Yes.

I should say at this point

we are not going to tell you viewers
how to do that. We're going to do it,

but we're not gonna tell you
the exact ingredients,
cos we're not idiots

and we know there are some people
out there who may use it
for the wrong purposes.

It's a delicate job.

If you are trying to make gunpowder,

you want, definitely, one of these
that sounds incredibly like a bell.

If I was the 12th-century police,

I would think, 'Where's that ringing?
It's someone making gunpowder again.'

And it has a precise recipe.

Let's hope for the best. Yeah.

In the wrong hands,
this could be deadly...

OK, here we go. Stand back.

Let's scoot.

..or just embarrassing.

Come on, let's go.

Looks like my O-Level Chemistry

isn't quite up there
with the Silk Road experts...

..but trust me, with the secret
to gunpowder now out,

warfare was transformed.

It had devastating consequences
for the Silk Road.

Now I want to go in search
of what happened next.

I love this area. It's one of
my absolute favourite places
along the Silk Road.

It's so astounding, I think,
but I'm gonna have to move on,

and history moved on, too,

because despite it being the most
fortified place along the Silk Road,

the place where the landscape
absolutely allowed you
to withstand siege,

Cappadocia did eventually fall.
The Byzantine Empire

fell to the various marauding tribes
that always tried to take this area.

Eventually it fell,

and in fact, that empire,
the Byzantines, were pushed back

to their last stronghold,
which was Constantinople,

and that now is called Istanbul.

Constantinople was the jewel
in the Silk Road crown.

It was the end of the road,

and served as the transit point
for goods arriving from the East

to be sold on to Western Europe,

and it's here,
to this ancient gateway,

I've come to find out
how the Silk Road met its end.

The wealth of Constantinople,
today Istanbul, was legendary.

At its height, it was the biggest
and wealthiest city in all of Europe.

Pickles.

To protect their bounty,

the city's Roman Byzantine rulers
built over 22km of walls

to deter would-be attackers.

It seemed impossible that such heavy
fortifications could be breached.

Last time I was walking around
city walls this big and this thick,

I was in Xi'an, at the very start
of the Silk Road.

Of course, the main difference
between Xi'an and Istanbul

is that Xi'an was never taken
by outside forces,

and so its city walls just remain
pristine and fortified,

whereas these ones
are in considerably worse nick.

The battered, crumbling walls
of Constantinople

bear the scars of a fight.

I'm going to the famous Hagia Sophia
to discover more about that fight.

Historian Ferudun Uzgamush
has secured me a private visit

to what was, for 1,000 years,
the biggest Christian church
on Earth...

..and constantly
under threat of attack.

The walls of Constantinople are
withstanding attacks all the time.

Right, so it was quite
a big incentive? Oh, yeah.

Inspired by this
spiritual invitation,

on April 6, 1453,

Islamic soldiers of the Ottoman
Empire launched an all-out attack

on the Roman forces...

..using giant stockpiles
of a weapon they could now make,

gunpowder.

Their army smashed down
the city walls

with the largest artillery barrage
the world had ever experienced.

The victorious Sultan Mehmed II

entered the church and declared
it was now a mosque.

Just explain to me what these big
Islamic discs that are here...

The Roman Empire that
had stood for 2,000 years

and created the Silk Road
was destroyed for ever.

You're talking about a wholesale
cultural transformation, aren't you?

And that's what happened, this is
what this building represents,

as opposed to just,
'We want this place,

we want this building, we want
this power.' It's bigger than that.

It's a wholesale spiritual, cultural
transformation. Of course. True.

The Silk Road was under
new management.

One of the things
that is very interesting to me

is that this building was converted
to a mosque

rather than being razed
to the ground.

To raze the cathedral
to the ground? No, no, no.

Is it? No, no, no.

It's very rare to be
in a religious building

that's been so cross-fertilised.
It's kind of strange, but amazing.

It's good to know that
in the 15th century,

when the Muslims overtook this place,

they decided to keep some record
of the previous religion,

even if they decided
to whitewash over it,

because only...
At least whitewashing over it

means you can eventually restore it.

For a while, trade flourished
under the new Ottoman rulers,

but after years of stability,
things were about to change again.

Next, I go in search of what was
the death knell for the Silk Road.

It's ironic because, of course,
the Silk Road begins in China,

and a Chinese invention
destroys the Silk Road.

I'm David Baddiel, and I'm in Turkey.

I've discovered the remarkable
secret ingredient of gunpowder...

That drop is war.

..and how that Silk Road invention

resulted in the fall
of its greatest city.

You're talking about
spiritual, cultural transformation.

Of course, sure, 100%.

So far, my journey has taken me
over 10,000km

in the footsteps of traders
and pioneers.

It ends here
in the city of Istanbul -

back then, Constantinople.

As the traders came to the end
of their journey they would, like me,

have been tired and dirty.

So I want to experience
what is arguably

one of the greatest gifts
the Ottomans gave

to those weary travellers,

the Hammam.

I'll be honest with you,
if this wasn't on telly,
I'd have taken the wrap off by now.

I'm lucky enough to get
a private visit to this bathhouse,

built in 1556 by the sultan's
personal architect.

It offered
royal bathers relaxation...

Like being in the bath
without being in the buff.

..and a good scrub-down.

Put your hands up, please.

So skilled.

These bathhouses proved so popular,

they caused a city-wide
water shortage...

Your Highness.

..and the Sultan had to put a halt
to building any more.

I can certainly see
why the sultans loved them.

You're being intimately adored, which
I think a sultan would have liked.

However, if I'd been in there
ten more minutes in that steam room,

I'd have looked more like a sultana.

See what I did there?

Now as my own journey nears
the finishing line,

I want to find out how the Silk Road
finally met its end.

I'm heading into the seat of power
of Sultan Mehmed II,

Topkapi Palace.

After the Sultan defeated the Romans
and took control of Constantinople,

he ruled his Ottoman Empire
from here.

Marios Hadjianastasis is an expert
on its history.

This represents a huge empire
that went on from 1300

all the way to 1922.

We've reached the point
on the Silk Road journey at which

the Silk Road becomes taken over,
essentially, by the Islamic world.

What are the consequences of that?

After the conquest
of Constantinople,

they begin to have control
of the trade routes

and therefore, the Europeans have to
go through using a middleman.

So the Sultan and the Ottomans
decided they wanted to control

this absolutely central part
of the Silk Road,

and that made it difficult for
the trade further on to Europe?

I think it made it less profitable.
It made it less profitable. Yes.

But at the same time, what happens
a little bit further to the east,

the big states, empires,

which control that route
start falling apart.

As the Ottomans took control
of the West,

war broke out in Central Asia,

and its kingdoms became hostile
towards outsiders.

In the East, China grew distrustful
of these warring neighbours

and closed its borders
to foreign traders.

Suddenly, doing business
along the Silk Road

became much more difficult.

So it's a combination
of developments

which brings about
the demise of that long haul route.

So, literally, the global market
starts to become more complicated

for the people
who have always controlled it?
Absolutely, absolutely.

The Silk Road's days were numbered.

The final straw,
like the silk which started it all,

was yet another Chinese invention

that travelled west
along the trade route.

Today, it can be found in every ship
on the planet,

and Marios is going to show me.

What happened is in the 8th century,
the Chinese invented the compass

and it made it possible
to navigate the world

without just relying on measuring
the distance from the stars.

The compass allowed ships
to safely navigate

around the coast of Africa...

..which meant that European traders
could take to the seas

and cut out the middleman.

So, at a point in time
when it's becoming

more and more difficult
to travel by land,

traders decide,
'Let's move from land to sea.' Yes.

So there's a huge irony
in the fact that

the compass was initially invented
by the Chinese,

and the compass contributed greatly
to the demise of the Silk Road.

Well, it's ironic because, of course,
the Silk Road begins in China

and is powered by Chinese invention,

by gunpowder and paper and
Chinese ideas coming down that road.

Shipping overtook transport by land,

and the Silk Road's dominance over
the world economy was finished...

..and my journey has now ended.

There's just time to take one last
look at this ancient gateway city

from the waters of the Bosporus.

It's been the most
incredible journey,

and it's been a journey not just
of kilometres for me -

it has been a journey
of understanding.

If you've travelled, like I have,
along the Silk Road,

the significance of this stretch
of water becomes heightened.

You realise that that journey
from Asia to Europe

was one that only began properly
with the Silk Road,

which was the beginnings
of the world talking to itself,

countries beginning to converse
and beginning to share ideas,

and culture, and religion,

and with that came the modern world.

It's been an epic journey
from East to West.

I've travelled 10,000km...

..across seven countries.

I've trekked deserts
in the footsteps of Marco Polo...

And less nuzzling
from you today, please.

..scaled mountaintops in search
of the nomads who began it all...

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

..dived for treasures
of lost kingdoms...

..to uncover the secrets of the road

that led to the world
as we know it today.

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