A despatch from creator of your new Southbank website-slash-Indiana Jones, Max Newton, who has gone haring off on the 2016 Mongol rally. He tells me it involves taking a beaten-up car and seeing how far you get… He’s made it to Kyrgyztan! Here’s his latest update – a bit like a sailing report, but with more culture: …. Samarkand, Pearl of the East and perhaps the only place on Earth where all three World Conquerors have definitely stood. Oh yes, the history geek in me would be strong this day. The Registan at night was breathtaking – three huge madrasahs surrounding a square, relics of the Temurid dynasty whose founder had lifted Samarkand into the ranks of cities like Babylon and Rome. In any case, we’d caught sight of a far more prodigious prize, the mausoleum of Temur himself. Temur, destroyer of Damascus, who piled up the heads of 100,000 Bagdhadis who’d opposed him, annihilator of Delhi, seven-time conqueror of Georgia and victor over...
