Nowadays caravanserai are decked out with all sorts of electronic gadgets, fridges, freezers, hot water, showers, toilets, televisions, comfy beds and computers; you can even tow them behind cars and go for miles off the traditional route, on roads, in them. Everyone can get a good night’s sleep and still get up and watch TV, have a cooked breakfast, go into cyberspace and it’s just like being at home.

Meanwhile, back in the deserts or the mountains of the world where there are no roads, the travellers find an oasis for their camels to drink at, some good fodder for their mules, a hot cup of tea when it’s freezing outside, or an ice-cold coke when it is 50C and a proper bed for one night and food. These caravanserai have been here for 5000 years without much change.

If you own, stay in, rent, hire, holiday in, or otherwise have dealings with the modern day caravan please don’t forget that historically it is your own personal caravanserai, and should be called by it’s full name, if only in your own mind. And the tune’s good too.