Marco Polo in Central Asia: 30: The Province of Yarcan [1]


Yarcan is a province of five days journey in length. [2] The people obey the law of Mohammed; but there are some Nestorian Christians; they are subject to the nephew of the Khan mentioned above. All necessaries are in abundance. It is an area of cotton cultivation and the inhabitants are skilful artisans.  They suffer severely by swelling in legs and in  throat, occasioned by bad quality of water.  Finding nothing else worth mentioning, I shall go on to Cotan.

Notes:-
1. Yarcan: A likely reference to the Yarkand region of modern day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. It has been an important centre of trade and culture on what we now call Silk Road.  It is in the Tarim Basin, a large desert basin surrounded by mountains.

2. It is a doubtful claim by the author. Samarkand in Uzbekistan was his last station. It is nearly 1400 kilometres from Samarkand to Yarkand, taking a route, first into Fergana valley and into Tian Shan mountain range; and then crossed modern day Kyrgyzstan and continued eastward, passing through the cities of Osh and Kashgar; from Kashgar southward passing through Yarkand valley and into Yarkand.

End of the Section 



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