Night Train to Turkistan - Google Map of the Stuart Stevens and his company's trip along the Ancient Silk Road

Although the title is enticing, the book itself is not a great book. It focuses more on how the hotels they stayed were, the bus and train details and almost nothing about the culture and history of places they have passed. If you are reading to learn about the Turkistan and its people, this is not the book to do so. It is more about the daily practicality of their journey, how they found the bus/train where they sat and how it was etc. The author is obsessed to follow the route of Fleming without any particular reason and they cannot achieve that. Anyways, one of the nice part of the book is the map it has provided. I transferred it to Google Maps to see how the landscape they pass is and here is the link to that: (Opening the map in full screen mode is recommended)
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Map of Nasir Khusraw's Travels (1046-1052)

View Nasir Khusraw's Travels (1046-1052) in a larger map


Adapted from the Naser-e Khosraw's Book of Travels, W. M. Thackston, Jr. New York, 1986

Nasir Khusraw's Safarname (Book of Travels) has been a classical text for Persian travel writing for the last 1000 years. Confessing that his travels are due to mid life crisis, he set out for Mecca at the age 42 after seeing a dream while in a drunk situation. In his dream, he was pointed the qibla direction (Mecca) when he asks about where the wisdom lays. Following this, he resolves to go for Hajj and rather immediately sets our for Mecca. For the next seven years, he travels through Persia, West Azerbaijan, Turkey, Syria, Cairo, Hijaz, Hafsa and Basra region. 

A Tentative Map for Ibn Battuta's Travel in Black Africa and Andalusia

View Adventures of Ibn Battuta : Black Africa and Andalusia Section in a larger map

This post is in draft version. It will hopefully be expanded later.


References:
1 - The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, Ross E. Dunn, University of California Press, Revised Edition, 2005, pp.277
2 - Ibn Battuta and his Saharan Travels