A Train Through Time

Riding the storied Golden Eagle, Maggie Shipstead finds the legacy of the Silk Road in the plains and valleys of Central Asia

TAJIKISTAN WAS A CHANGE IN PLANS. My rail tour through Central Asia—Jewels of the Silk Road, offered by Golden Eagle Luxury Trains—was supposed to start in the country next door, closed, elusive Turkmenistan, but at the last minute the Turkmen government declined our group’s visa applications. So instead I found myself descending into Dushanbe at 2 a.m. on a flight full of track-suited European teenagers on their way to the World Judo Juniors Championships. Waiting at customs amid international clusters of chatting judokas, I considered the idea of the Silk Road and its bearing on Central Asia. The term was coined by 19th-century German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen and belongs in the all-time branding hall of fame because it reduces something almost inconceivably complex into a memorable, evocative, and wildly…

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Conde Nast Traveler (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

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