A review of the book 'The Stone Tower: Ptolemy, the Silk Road, and a 2,000-year-old Riddle' written by Riaz Dean.
This book is the result of a solo journey the author Riaz Dean made retracing the old Silk Road. Along the way, amongst the mountains of Central Asia he stumbled across a landmark that, upon later researching the maps of Ptolemy, he came to realise was the geographer's lost Stone Tower.
Order links of the book 'The Stone Tower: Ptolemy, the Silk Road, and a 2,000-year-old Riddle' below:
Amazon India
Flipkart
Amazon USA
And don't forget to checkout Historylogy.com for latest book reviews and tidbits from the pages of history.
Please feel free to our social media ID's for latest updates. Links below:
https://www.facebook.com/historylogy/
https://twitter.com/historylogy
https://www.instagram.com/historylogy/
Affiliate Earnings Disclaimer:
This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
Coming up: A review of the book 'The Stone Tower: Ptolemy, the Silk Road, and a 2,000-year-old Riddle' written by Riaz Dean.
Namaste Friends. My name is 'Shinil Subramanian Payamal' and you are listening to the Historylogy podcast.
Before I proceed, a full disclosure: This book was bought with my own money and not been provided to me by the author or publisher.
Little bit about the author:
This book is the result of a solo journey the author made retracing the old Silk Road. Along the way, amongst the mountains of Central Asia he stumbled across a landmark that, upon later researching the maps of Ptolemy, he came to realise was the geographer's lost Stone Tower. Riaz Dean collects old books and maps about the exploration of this region, which also formed the basis for his first book Mapping the Great Game.
Let me read what is written on the inside flap of the book cover:
A path traversed by caravans laden with silk, spices and much more besides, the old Silk Road influenced trade, religions, cultures and economies across Europe, Asia and far beyond.
In his latest book, Riaz Dean blends the best of this region's history and geography with ancient cartography to solve a 2,000-year-old riddle that has perplexed scholars for centuries: Where was the Stone Tower that the great geographer Claudius Ptolemy had written about? This highly significant but now-lost landmark represented the midpoint and thumping heart of the Silk Road, as merchant caravans plied their wares between the Occident and the Orient.
From the significance of the Heavenly Horses to the intrigues of geopolitics and war between clans and kingdoms, Dean brings to life the legendary Silk Road even as his evocative narrative and meticulous research pinpoints the Stone Tower's probable location somewhere by the so-called Roof of the World.
Coming to the book review, it has been very lucidly written about the Silk Road, a name coined in 1877 by German Geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen.
The author has rightly mentioned in the Introduction section that this book does not set out to make a detailed study of the various topics covered—rather, with the Silk Road as a backdrop, it attempts to solve the age-old riddle surrounding Ptolemy's lost Stone Tower.
Conclusion:
The book demonstrates that neither Ptolemy’s data nor description are sufficient to lead us to his midpoint on the Silk Road.
The book is just under 200 pages and very easy to read. It has about half a dozen maps and 18 illustrations. It is an absolutely fascinating tale about a part of the world and a time period of which we know so little. I give this book 4.5/5.
The book has been published by Penguin and is available for around Rs. 450/- on Amazon India and under Rs. 400/- on Flipkart. And it is available for around $20 USD on Amazon USA. I will provide all the respective buy links in the show notes.
Last but not the least, thank you for spending your valuable time listening to this book review. Really grateful. Please don't forget to subscribe to the Historylogy podcast on your favourite podcasting app and also feel free to leave a review. Also, please check historylogy.com for all previous episodes. Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you. Take care and bye!