The Silk Route
For more than 1,500 years, the network of routes known as the Silk Road contributed to exchanging goods and ideas among diverse cultures.
Humans have permanently moved from place to place and traded with their neighbors, exchanging goods, skills, and ideas. Throughout history, Eurasia was crisscrossed with communication routes and trade paths, which gradually linked up to form what is known today as the Silk Roads, routes across both land and sea, along which silk and many other goods were exchanged between people worldwide.
Maritime routes were an essential part of this network, linking East and West by sea, and were used for the trade of spices in particular, thus becoming known as the Spice Routes.
These vast networks carried more than just merchandise and precious commodities; the constant movement and mixing of populations also transmitted knowledge, ideas, cultures, and beliefs, profoundly impacting Eurasian peoples' history and civilizations.
Travelers along the Silk Roads were attracted not only by trade but also by the intellectual and cultural exchange that was taking place in cities along the Silk Roads, many of which developed into hubs of culture and learning. Science, arts, and literature, as well as crafts and technologies, were thus shared and disseminated into societies along the lengths of these routes, and in this way, languages, religions, and cultures developed and influenced each other.
'Silk Road' is in fact a relatively recent term, and for the majority of their long history, these ancient roads had no particular name. In the mid-nineteenth century, the German geologist Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen named the trade and communication network Die Seidenstrasse(the Silk Road), and the term, also used in the plural, continues to stir imaginations with its evocative mystery.
The Silk Road extended approximately 6,437 kilometers (4,000 miles) across some of the world’s most formidable landscapes, including the Gobi Desert and the Pamir Mountains.
View our maps depicting maps of Central Asia and the Far East or maps showing the trade and caravan routes.
The network of routes connecting Constantinople (Turkey) and Xián (China) crosses all of Central Asia. The Silk Road would be the dominant force in international trade for fifteen centuries.
An abundance of goods traveled along the Silk Road. Merchants carried silk from China to Europe, where it dressed royalty and wealthy patrons. Other favorite commodities from Asia included jade and other precious stones, porcelain, tea, and spices. In exchange, horses, glassware, textiles, and manufactured goods traveled eastward.
Istanbul (Turkey)
Perched between East and West, ancient Constantinople was an essential stop for merchants from both sides of the world. This historic city, today renamed Istanbul, was the gateway to the Silk Road.
Alexandria (Egypt)
The great African powers also had their slice of the Silk Road pie. Egypt quickly became the largest importer of silk in Africa, with Alexandria a transit city on routes to the East.
Teheran (Iran)
Undoubtedly, another of the essential part of the Silk Road is Iran. Some of its major cities, such as Bam, Tabriz, and of course its capital, Tehran, were key stops for silk merchants.
Kazan (Russia)
Kazan has a long history as one of the cities through which the Silk Road passed,
Samarkand (Uzbekistan)
If there is a country where all the strands of the Silk Road converge, it is Uzbekistan. The city of Samarkand has been at the crossroads of world cultures for over two and a half millennia and is one of the most important sites on the Silk Routes traversing Central Asia. Located in the Zerafshan River valley, in north-eastern Uzbekistan, the city enjoys the benefits of abundant natural resources and settlement in the region can be traced back to 1,500 BC.
This great unknown destination brims with heritage and history around every corner. Trails packed with caravans from all over the world joined Samarkand. This thousand-year-old Uzbek city declared a World Heritage Site, was home to the first silk production outside of China.
Xian (China)
Xi’an, the Chinese city eternally protected by the terracotta warriors, was also the place that captured the heart of all of Asia and all of Europe for several centuries. The Silk Road ended in Xi’an, home to producers and a destination for merchants. The city itself has been destroyed on several occasions.