The history of Central Asia reveals a complex patchwork of tribes, ethnicities and nations bound together in a struggle to survive in some of the region’s most harsh and unforgiving lands. Only those who knew the secrets of living in harmony with their environment were able to survive and eventually flourish, and this truth remains valid today. Early peoples and land use Sedentary and nomadic tribes have co-existed side by side since ancient times. Cultural and economic links were fostered along trade routes that crisscrossed the mountainous landscape as well as the lowlands, steppes and deserts. Goods were bought and sold, and towns and cities were founded. Some prospered while others declined and perished to be reclaimed by the land. In the first century AD the mountainous areas of the Tien-Shan and the Eastern Pamirs were the homeland of tribes of nomadic Saks. They herded cattle, gathered food, and hunted on the wild slopes. The Saks living in the Ferghana valley, now largely on the territory of modern Uzbekistan, knew the art of irrigation and used it to water the land on which they farmed crops, tended orchards, and grew grapes. They also reared cattle, sometimes using pastures far from their villages. The advent of agriculture, crafts and the opening a network of new trade routes along the Great Silk Road heralded an age of prosperity, thriving towns and the building of roads