Curated playlist
Populated places along the Silk Road
- CtesiphonSome accounts called Ctesiphon the world's largest city, yet one arch is all that still stands.
- AlmatyAlmaty, a city in Kazakhstan, was almost completely flattened by earthquakes twice.
- KabulKabul was once nicknamed the Paris of Central Asia. By 1996, about 80 percent of the city was destroyed.
- HeratHerat, an Afghan city, was once thought to rival Renaissance Florence in glory. It was called the Pearl of Khorasan.
- GhazniBabur called the city of Ghazni "a mean place" in 1504. Centuries earlier it was a center of Persian poetry.
- BaghdadBy the middle of the 9th century, Baghdad's House of Wisdom held the largest selection of books on earth.
- AntiochAntioch, once the Roman Empire's third-largest city, now lies buried metres deep.
- SamarkandSamarkand was destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1220, yet Marco Polo later called it splendid.
- AndijanUzbekistan's government said 187 died when soldiers fired on Andijan protesters in 2005. A defector alleged 1,500.
- AlexandriaAlexander the Great founded Alexandria, then left Egypt within months and never came back.
- IstanbulIn 1453, Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople after a 55-day siege. Hours later he made Hagia Sophia a mosque.
- ConstantinopleA Hungarian gunsmith named Urban built the cannon that finally broke Constantinople's walls.
- SeleuciaArchaeologists searching for the city of Opis found the lost city of Seleucia instead.