Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva have been known as among the most beautiful cities in the world, for being the centre, perhaps the source of Persian-Arabic civilisation. Only recently have they become accessible to western travellers. Robin Magowan gives a highly descriptive account, the first detailed portrait for many years of what life in these cities is like. Illustrated in colour by Soviet photographer Vladimir Gippenreiter - Fabled Cities is an evocation of the splendour and the savagery of the Central Asian tradition. Samarkand, the Rome of central Asia, is a monument to the genius of Timur (Tamerlane). Bukhara developed as a centre of pilgrimage and religious learning to become one of the great holy cities of Islam. This combination of violence and aesthetic refinement is epitomized in Khiva, which saw the last great flowering of Islamic culture in the 19th century. Beautifully designed and produced, Fabled Cities is the gift for armchair travellers.