“But when Polo travelled through the South Caucasus in the thirteenth century, he visited Silk Road territories long since vanished or metamorphosed, such as Lesser and Greater Hermenia, Turcomania, Georgiana, and Zorzania. ‘Names are only the guests of reality,’ the Chinese sage Hsu Yu noted in 2300 BCE, suggesting that borders are little more than collective myths – fictions that a certain number of people, for a certain period of time, believe are fact.”

“But when Polo travelled through the South Caucasus in the thirteenth century, he visited Silk Road territories long since vanished or metamorphosed, such as Lesser and Greater Hermenia, Turcomania, Georgiana, and Zorzania. ‘Names are only the guests of reality,’ the Chinese sage Hsu Yu noted in 2300 BCE, suggesting that borders are little more than collective myths – fictions that a certain number of people, for a certain period of time, believe are fact.”

— Kate Harris