Here's a  map showing our basic destinations. Most Central Asian  states are now part of the C.I.S. -  formerly satellites of the Soviet Union. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, Tajikstan and Kyrgyzstan are struggling to find their identities in the modern world,  while Pakistan, Afghanistan and the northern areas of India are more well known. Of course, all that is now "Pakistan" was once the independent Sikh kingdom of the Punjab, and then was conquered by the East India Company in the late 1840s and became part of India under British rule, the modern state of Pakistan being created in 1947 at the Partition of India. Iran, formerly Persia, started with the reign of King Darius, played host to Alexander, varied between an independent kingdom and a vassal state of France, Russia and the US for years, and is now slowing climbing back in to the 18th century (sic).