Mapping the Silk Road and Beyond

As we come to expect from Phaidon, this is a visually stunning book. The many maps are vibrant and clearly reproduced, a full page for each in this large format (295x250mm) paperback.
While I admit to not reading every page, this book is well suited to picking out the detail that interests the reader, rather than a full narrative.

Divided into five parts, the section titles are:
- Ancient and Medieval European Concepts of Asia
- The Impulse to Explore the East
- East India Empires: Portuguese, Dutch, British, French, Spanish
- Resisting European Encroachment: Japan, Korea, China
- North to Cathay and the Pacific

Each of these sections contain numbered maps showing the progress and regression of the understanding of the explored (or in some cases unexplored) geography of the world. The Silk Road is the common factor, but not necessarily the most dominant in the text, which explains the map: it's origins, its author(s) and the information which led to it being produced. In many cases this does tie back to the Silk Road, but I found this was not always the most interesting or relevant part.

A visual spectacular, and 4 stars.