For over 2000 years Europe and Asia have met in the region called Central Asia or Turkestan, a vast area of steppe, deserts and high mountains. The famed ”Silk Road” went through this area and provided an exchange of goods and ideas between Asia and Europe for centuries. Central Asia stretches from Siberia in the north to Hindu Kush and Tibet in the south and from the Caspian Sea in the west to Mongolia in the east and includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Chinas western province Xinjiang.