Uzbekistan is a very ancient land and, at the same time, a very young nation. It has been the cross roads of the most important trade route in history, the Great Silk Road, and the site of numerous invasions from the east (Huns, Turkic tribes, Mongols and Chinese), the west (Persians, Macedonians, Arabs) and the north (Russians). Over 100,000 years ago, primitive man was engraving caves in the region but the haze of pre-history begins to clear only with the archaeological discoveries of human occupation (tools and monuments) that push the date when man first began herding animals to 4000 BC. Between 4000 and 2000 BC Central Asia saw the development of mixed farming in which tribes hunted, herded and grew some crops. Earthen burial mounds from around 1700BC point to the rise of a distinct nomadic culture based on the horse breeding. Nomadic cultures such as the Sakas and the Scythians mixed with the oasis settlements in Khorezm, Bactria and Sogdiana.

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