The heart of Central Asia has been sealed off since the communist revolution. In the summer of 1990 the author of this book was invited to travel across this previously forbidden area in the company of a band of Mongolian horsemen, intent on re-acting the feat of the courier riders who served the great 13th century warlord, Genghis Khan. The Mongols' purpose was to celebrate the achievement of their ancestors who regularly carried despatches over 1000 miles to the Mongol princes who ruled all the land from the banks of the Danube to the shores of the China Sea. The author's own purpose was more personal. No European since the Middle Ages has described what it was like to make such a journey on horseback. It presented a unique opportunity to experience traditional Mongolian life and to observe his companions reclaim their natural history, with Genghis Khan himself an ever-present and powerful symbol. Tim Severin is the author of The Jason Voyage, The Ulysses Voyage and Crusader.