Birthday discovery for incandescens

See, the magic kingdom in Genjuu no Seiza is one of those 'vaguely in the desert/ silk roads/ take a left at Nepal and keep going' places that I can't place for the life of me. Central Asia (as I discover it's called) is something I never got straight, even when I was a classicist and read about Alexander whooping it up in Bactria and Sogdiana, nor when I was in Japan and everyone had Silk Roads on the brain (complete with Bactrian mummies at the science museum in Ueno, lovingly advertised every day before my Touyama no Kinsan reruns.) I read Tanhuang and Loulan by Inoue, but damned if I knew where those places were except basically 'west of China somewhere'. We won't even mention Ima Ichiko's Central Asian AU series that has perplexed paleaswater and myself so badly.
( When in doubt, take a book off the shelf )