Why read The Road to Oxiana?

Book cover of The Road to Oxiana

Book description

"The Road to Oxiana" is an account of Robert Byron’s ten-month journey to Iran and Afghanistan in 1933–34 in the company of Christopher Sykes. This travelogue is considered by many modern travel writers to be the first example of great travel writing. Bruce Chatwin has described it as “a sacred…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Road to Oxiana as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Dana Facaros

Author

Moving on from dead characters in novels to dead writers of classic travel literature about Afghanistan. Byron's superb evocation of Afghanistan in the 1930s revolutionized the art of travel writing, as did the equally delightful Eric Newby's A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, written in the 1950s.

From Dana's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Christopher Corr

Author

It was first published in 1937 and the book is an account of a journey Robert Byron made through Persia and Afghanistan in 1933.

The Oxiana he writes about no longer exists having been torn apart by wars and revolutions. I read of his visit to see the Buddhas in Bamian with an ache. I wish they had never been destroyed.

His conversational narrative vividly describes life in towns and villages and the people he meets and their ways of living. He is driven by a love for Islamic architecture that lures him to make this journey.

He attends tea…

From Christopher's list on for travelling vagabonds.