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The ancient discovery that put a Silk Road city back on the map

After unearthing a rare collection of highly prized Silk Road artefacts, a family in the Himalayas has opened a museum dedicated to one of the fabled route's final traders.

Making space on the dusty floor, the family began to lay out silks from China, silver cookware from Afghanistan, rugs from Persia, turquoise from Tibet, saddles from Mongolia and luxury soaps and salves from London, New York and Munich. Fields of barley blanket sandy floodplains; blindingly white apple and apricot blossoms paint the shores along the Indus River; and on the ridges above, snow leopards and Himalayan brown bears move like wraiths as they search for their next meal. With Hussain's two uncles serving as the director and curator, the family opened the Munshi Aziz Bhat Museum in central Kargil where visitors can explore hundreds of Silk Road artefacts ranging from 18th-Century Ladakhi sheep-horn bows to 19th-Century Chinese copper water pipes.

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