About Alexandra Tolstoy
Alexandra Tolstoy first travelled to Central Asia in 1999, setting out with three companions to ride the length of the Silk Road from Turkmenistan to China. Travelling by horse and camel, the journey covered over 5,000 miles and took nine months.
She later rode from Turkmenistan to Moscow’s Red Square, and has worked extensively across Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Siberia and Uzbekistan, building long-standing relationships with the people and landscapes she travels through. A fluent Russian speaker, she has written a book and presented a BBC documentary series on horse cultures around the world.
In recent years, she has focused her work on Kyrgyzstan, where she now runs a small number of journeys each year through the Tien Shan mountains, following routes developed over many years. She recently produced and presented a documentary film in Kyrgyzstan, and is an official ambassador for the Kyrgyz Republic in the sphere of tourism, as well as an ambassador for the World Nomad Games.
Alongside this, she runs Tolstoy Dacha, a collection of objects shaped by her travels between England and Central Asia.