In 1933, Robert Byron set off from Venice along with his friend Christopher Sykes to explore the architecture of the center East. Their long and arduous journey took them from Cyprus and Jerusalem to Syria, Iraq, Persia and Afghanistan, and lastly Oxiana, a tiny country around the River Oxus, the Greek name for the river Amu Darya, which snakes down from Russia into Afghanistan. They travel at all necessary (truck, camel, horses and foot), and encounter several setbacks, but their dangers are rewarded because they encounter a number of the best types of Eastern art and architecture, a lot of which have now vanished forever. Crazy and erudite, The Road to Oxiana’s mix of exquisite lyricism, detail and humour provided birth to a new kind of travel books, serving as inspiration for later writers such as Bruce Chatwin, Peter Matthiesson and Jan Morris.

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