Silk Route
Ancient trade corridor
The Silk Route, also called the Silk Road, was the ancient network of trade routes connecting China to the Mediterranean, active from roughly the 2nd century BCE to the 15th century CE.
Merchants transported silk, spices, and other goods across Central Asia.
The term now evokes cultural exchange across vast distances: a silk route of ideas between East and West.
- ChinaEast Asian superpower
- BuddhismEnlightenment-seeking Eastern religion
- IslamQuranic monotheistic religion
- SamarkandHistoric Central Asian city
- oasis townsCommunities at desert springs
spices · Persia · Roman Empire · India · East meets West · caravanserai · trading posts · tea · Constantinople · printing technology · desert crossing · Marco Polo · Confucianism · Mongol Empire · art styles · porcelain · Rome · jade
- Medieval IndiaMughal Empire, Vijayanagara Empire, Akbar, Shah Jahan, Taj Mahal
- Mughal IndiaMughals, Taj Mahal, Peacock Throne, miniature paintings, Akbar
- Steppe HistoryGenghis Khan, Mongol Empire, nomadic tribes, nomads, nomadic culture
- Gilgit-BaltistanKarakoram, K2, Concordia, Eagle's Nest
Silk RouteIron Curtain
Cold War's political divide
trade embargo · blockade · closed borders · isolationism · autarky
Silk Routetriangular trade
Three-legged Atlantic exchange system
silk, route, silks, silken, silky, silkier, silkiest, silkiness, silkworm