Samarkand is located in Uzbekistan in the valley of the Zeravshan River. The land surrounding Samarkand is arid and windswept, and caravans of camels and horses made their way along well-trodden dirt pathways between the oasis-like cities of Merv, Bukhara, and Samarkand on their way east to Kashgar, southward toward Bactria, and into the Indian subcontinent through the Khyber Pass and Peshawar, or through the valley of Kashmir to the cities of northern Punjab and the Ganges plain.