Its importance is due to its command of the point where the chief trade route from Persia and Central Asia to Europe, over the table-land of Armenia by Bayezid and Erzerum, descends to the sea.
In 1867 he became governor of Turkestan, and held the post until his death, making himself a name in the expansion of the empire in central Asia.
On the other hand, the Bactrian species, which is employed throughout a large tract of central Asia in the domesticated condition, appears, according to recent researches, to exist in the wild state in some of the central Asian deserts.
In the former that of Europe and of Central Asia are continuous.
Many of the great historic movements of peoples were doubtless due to the gradual change of geographical or climatic conditions; and the slow desiccation of Central Asia has been plausibly suggested as the real cause of the peopling of modern Europe and of the medieval wars of the Old World, the theatres of which were critical points on the great natural lines of communication between east and west.
