草的高速路 · THE GRASS HIGHWAY
The Road Made of Grass — Eurasia · The Steppe
一条几乎连绵不断的草原带，自匈牙利绵延约 8,000 公里直抵满洲。在马背上，它成了历史的大动脉——斯基泰人、匈人与蒙古人循此自东方驰出，丝绸之路也从中穿行。
平坦、开阔、数千公里都覆着同一种草，草原难以耕种，却最宜驰骋。一旦人在此驯化了马，骑手便能以奔马的速度横越大陆——于是游牧帝国可以从蒙古一直打到欧洲门前，商队、宗教乃至瘟疫，也都沿着这同一条绿色走廊往来。
An almost unbroken belt of grassland runs ~8,000 km from Hungary to Manchuria. On horseback it became history's great highway — the Scythians, Huns and Mongols rode it out of the east, and the Silk Road threaded through it.
Flat, open and covered in the same grass for thousands of kilometres, the steppe is hard to farm but perfect to ride across. Once people domesticated the horse here, a rider could cross a continent at the speed of a galloping herd — so nomad empires could strike from Mongolia to the gates of Europe, and caravans, religions and the plague all travelled the same green corridor.