Eastwards, beyond the foggy, wooded ridges of the Eastern Carpathians, lies a land dominated by rolling hills and knolls, covered in earlier periods by extensive forests and patches of plain. From northwest to southeast flow several large rivers, known since ancient times: Siret, Prut, Dniester, with their numerous tributaries. Corresponding roughly to the historical province of Moldova, this land is literally at the western edge of the great Eurasian Steppe… (from the Introduction)