The cities running roughly west to east in north-south chunks with modern locations named when the order is questionable:
- Constantinople,
- Aleppo,
- Damascus,
- Jerusalem,
- Tabriz in modern Iran,
- Baghdad in modern Iraq,
- Basra,
- Isfahan,
- Ormuz,
- Urgench in modern Uzbekistan,
- Merv (Merv) in modern Turkmenistan,
- Bukhara in modern Uzbekistan,
- Samarkand,
- Kesh,
- Kabul in modern Afghanistan,
- Taxila in modern Pakistan,
- Kashgar in modern China,
- Khotan,
- Delhi in modern India,
- Agra,
- Dunhuang in modern China,
- Karakorum,
- Chang 'an,
- Guangzhou, and
- Beijing.
