Eurasian Steppe Quotes

The country of the Turks is not Turkey, nor yet Turkistan, Their country is a vast and eternal land: Turan!

My dream was to ride a horse from Mongolia to Hungary, 10,000 km across the great Eurasian Steppe, and in doing so, come to understand the nomadic cultures that have presided there for thousands of years.

I admit I have a Hungarian temper. Why not? I am from Hungary. We are descendants of Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun.

I'm not sure the Russians would be happy that their iconic wooly mammoth has North American origins.

Riding the trail of ancient nomad societies from Mongolia across the Eurasian steppe to the still-distant Danube River in Hungary, I had grappled with the harsh realities of Central Asia - where seasonal temperatures range from -52C to the mid-40s - and come to appreciate the ancient and symbiotic relationship nomads share with their environment.

The original home of the Aryan race appears to have been somewhere among the mountains and lofty table-lands of Central Asia. The word 'Arya,' meaning the high or the excellent, indicates their superiority over the neighboring races long before the beginning of history.

The roots of our statehood go back more than two millennia and two centuries to the origins of the Hun Empire. Building upon the legacies and power of the Huns, Mongols had built the largest land empire in the history of the mankind.

I have brought many artifacts back with me from the steppe. My favourite is a 90-year-old Kazakh saddle decorated with silverwork in traditional motifs. It symbolises the deep relationship between man and horse on the Eurasian Steppe.