{{Otheruses}}

[[File:Silk Route extant.JPG|thumb|400px|The Silk Road extending from Southern [[Europe]] through [[Arabia]], [[Somalia]], [[Egypt]], [[Persia]], [[Pakistan]], [[India]], [[Bangladesh]], [[Java]] and [[Vietnam]] until it reaches [[China]]. Land routes are red, water routes blue]]

The '''Silk Road''' (or '''Silk Routes''') is an extensive interconnected network of [[trade route]]s across the Asian continent connecting [[East Asia|East]], [[South Asia|South]], and [[Western Asia]] with the [[Mediterranean]] world, as well as [[North Africa|North]] and [[Northeast Africa]] and [[Europe]]. The Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative [[China|Chinese]] [[silk]] trade which began during the [[Han Empire]], the major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive trans-continental network.<ref name="The Silk Roads 1998 pp. 1-2">"Approaches Old and New to the Silk Roads" Vadime Eliseeff in: ''The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce''. Paris (1998) UNESCO, Reprint: Berghahn Books (2009), pp. 1-2. ISBN 92-3-103652-1; ISBN 1-57181-221-0; ISBN 1-57181-222-9 (pbk)</ref><ref name="Waugh, Daniel 2007 p. 4">Waugh, Daniel. (2007). "Richthofen "Silk Roads": Toward the Archeology of a Concept." ''The Silk Road''. Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 2007, p. 4.</ref><ref>Hill (2009), pp. ix-xiv.</ref> In recent years, both the maritime and overland Silk Routes are again being used, often closely following the ancient routes.

== Overview ==

{{multiple image| align = right | direction = horizontal | header = | header_align = left/right/center | footer = Woven [[silk]] textile from Tomb No. 1 at [[Mawangdui]], [[Changsha]], [[Hunan]] province, [[China]], 2nd century BCE, [[Han Dynasty]]| footer_align = left | image1 = Silk from Mawangdui 2.jpg | width1 = 150 | caption1 = | image2 = Silk from Mawangdui.jpg | width2 = 150 | caption2 = }}

The Silk Routes (collectively known as the 'Silk Road') were important paths for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between traders, merchants, [[pilgrim]]s, [[missionaries]], soldiers, [[nomad]]s and urban dwellers from [[Ancient China]], [[Ancient India]], [[Persia]] and [[Mediterranean]] countries for almost 3,000 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.silk-road.com/artl/srtravelmain.shtml|title=ANCIENT SILK ROAD TRAVELERS [sic]|publisher=www.silk-road.com|accessdate=2008-07-02}}</ref>

Extending over 7,000 miles, the routes enabled people to transport goods, especially luxuries such as slaves, [[silk]], [[satin]] and other fine fabrics, [[musk]], other perfumes, spices, medicines, jewels, glassware and even [[rhubarb]], as well as serving as a conduit for the spread of knowledge, ideas, cultures and diseases<ref name=wood>{{cite book| first=Francis| last=Wood | year= 2002| title= The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia| edition= | publisher= University of California Press| location=Berkeley, CA| pages= 9, 13–23| isbn= 978-0-520-24340-8}}</ref> between different parts of the world ([[Ancient China]], [[Ancient India]], [[Asia Minor]] and the [[Mediterranean]]). Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great [[civilization]]s of [[Indian Subcontinent|India]], [[China]], [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]], [[Persia]], [[Arabs|Arabia]] and [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], and in several respects helped lay the foundations for the modern world. Although the term ''the Silk Road'' implies a continuous journey, very few who traveled the route traversed it from end to end. For the most part, goods were transported by a series of agents on varying routes and were traded in the bustling mercantile markets of the oasis towns.<ref name=wood/>

[[File:Summer Vacation 2007, 263, Watchtower In The Morning Light, Dunhuang, Gansu Province.jpg|thumb|The ruins of a [[Han Dynasty]] (206 BC - 220 AD) Chinese [[watchtower]] made of [[rammed earth]] at [[Dunhuang]], [[Gansu]] province]]

The central Asian sections of the trade routes were expanded around 114 BCE by the [[Han dynasty]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Elisseeff | first = Vadime | authorlink = | title = The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce | publisher = UNESCO Publishing / Berghahn Books | year = 2001 | pages = 332 pages | doi = | isbn = 978-92-3-103652-1 }}</ref> largely through the missions and explorations of [[Zhang Qian]],<ref name="boulnois">{{cite book |first=Luce|last=Boulnois |year=2005|title=Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants|edition=|publisher=Odyssey Books |location=Hong Kong|pages=66|isbn=962-217-721-2}}</ref> but earlier trade routes across the continents already existed.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} In the late Middle Ages, transcontinental trade over the land routes of the Silk Road declined as sea trade increased.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18006|title=The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map: Silk Road, North China [Northern Silk Road, North Silk Road] Ancient Trackway|publisher=www.megalithic.co.uk|accessdate=2008-07-05|last=Hogan|first= C. Michael}}</ref> Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other products were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies as well as the [[bubonic plague]] (the so-called 'Black Death') also traveled along the Silk Routes.

==Etymology==

The first person who used the term "Seidenstraße" (literally "Silk Road") was the [[Germany|German]] geographer [[Ferdinand von Richthofen]] in 1877. The Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade, a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive trans-continental network.<ref name="The Silk Roads 1998 pp. 1-2"/><ref name="Waugh, Daniel 2007 p. 4"/><ref>Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the ''Hou Hanshu''." 2nd Draft Edition. Introduction [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/texts.html]</ref> Most of the books written about the 'Silk Road' are often travel books written in the last 30 years or so - using a various amount of (usually the same) sources from history and archaeology. There is little or not enough evidence to say the term 'Silk Road' itself existed before the above reference by von Richthofen (certainly not in Medieval times), which places some questions on the historical legacy as a revisionist concept to encompass many forms of trade route under a romantic and convenient term.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}}

== Routes taken==

===Overland silk routes===

[[File:Transasia trade routes 1stC CE gr2.png|right|thumb|250px|The [[Silk]] Road in the 1st century.]]

{{details|Cities along the Silk Road}}

As it extends westwards from the ancient commercial centers of China, the overland, intercontinental Silk Road divides into the northern and southern routes bypassing the [[Taklamakan Desert]] and [[Lop Nur]].

'''The northern route''' started at [[Chang'an]] (now called [[Xi'an]]), the capital of the ancient Chinese Kingdom, which, in the [[Later Han]], was moved further east to [[Luoyang]]. The route was defined about the 1st Century BCE as [[Han Wudi]] put an end to harassment by nomadic tribes.{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}

The route travels northwest through the Chinese province of [[Gansu]] from [[Shaanxi]] Province, and splits into three further routes, two of them following the mountain ranges to the north and south of the [[Taklamakan]] Desert to rejoin at [[Kashgar]]; and the other going north of the [[Tian Shan]] mountains through [[Turpan]], [[Talgar]] and [[Almaty]] (in what is now southeast [[Kazakhstan]]). The routes split west of Kashgar with one branch heading down the Alai Valley towards Termez and [[Balkh]], while the other traveled through [[Kokand]] in the [[Fergana Valley]], and then west across the [[Karakum Desert]] towards [[Merv]], joining the southern route briefly.

One of the branch routes turned northwest to the north of the [[Aral Sea|Aral]] and [[Caspian Sea|Caspian]] seas then and on to the [[Black Sea]]. Yet another route started at [[Xi'an]], passed through the Western corridor beyond the [[Yellow River]]s, Xinjiang, [[Fergana]] (in present-day eastern [[Uzbekistan]]), [[Persia]] and [[Iraq]] before joining the western boundary of the [[Roman Empire]]. A route for caravans, the northern Silk Road brought to China many goods such as "dates, saffron powder and pistachio nuts from Persia; [[frankincense]], aloes and [[myrrh]] from [[Somalia]]; sandalwood from [[India]]; glass bottles from [[Egypt]], and other expensive and desirable goods from other parts of the world." In exchange, the caravans sent back bolts of silk brocade, lacquer ware and porcelain.<ref>Ulric Killion, ''A Modern Chinese Journey to the West: Economic Globalization And Dualism'', (Nova Science Publishers: 2006), p.66</ref>

'''The southern route''' is mainly a single route running from China through northern [[India]], the [[Turkestan]]–[[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]] region, [[Mesopotamia]], and into [[Anatolia]], with southward spurs enabling the journey to be completed by sea from various points. It starts out south through the [[Sichuan Basin]] in [[China]]. Crossing the high mountains into northeast [[India]], probably via the [[Ancient tea route]], it continues west along the [[Brahmaputra]] and [[Ganges]] river plains, possibly joining the [[Grand Trunk Road]] west of [[Varanasi]]. Then it passes through northern [[Pakistan]], over the [[Hindu Kush]] mountains, and into [[Afghanistan]], rejoining the northern route briefly near [[Merv]]. From there it follows a nearly straight line west through mountainous northern [[Iran]] and the northern tip of the [[Syrian Desert]] to the [[Levant]], where [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] trading ships plied regular routes to [[Italy]], and land routes went either north through [[Anatolia]] or south to [[North Africa]]. Another branch road traveled from [[Herat]] through [[Susa]] to [[Charax Spasinu]] at the head of the Persian Gulf and across to [[Petra]] and on to [[Alexandria]] and other eastern Mediterranean ports from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome.

{{Trade route}}

=== Maritime silk routes ===

As much as fourteen hundred years ago, during China's [[Eastern Han Dynasty]], a sea route, although not part of the formal Silk Route, led from the mouth of the [[Red River (Vietnam)|Red River]] near modern [[Hanoi]], through the [[Malacca Straits]] to Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and India, and then on to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea [[kingdom of Axum]] and eventual Roman ports. From ports on the Red Sea goods, including silks, were transported overland to the Nile and then to Alexandria from where they were shipped to Rome, Constantinople and other Mediterranean ports.<ref>Casson, Lionel. 1989. The ''Periplus Maris Erythraei.'' Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04060-5.</ref>

Another branch of these sea routes led down the East African coast called "Azania" by the Greeks and Romans in the 1st century CE as described in the [[Periplus of the Erythraean Sea]] (and, very probably, 澤散 ''Zesan'' in the 3rd century by the Chinese),<ref>[http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html]</ref> at least as far as the port known to the Romans as "Rhapta," which was probably located in the delta of the [[Rufiji River]] in modern [[Tanzania]].<ref>"The Egypto-Graeco-Romans and Panchea/Azania: sailing in the Erythraean Sea." Felix A. Chami. In: ''Society for Arabian Studies Monographs 2 Trade and Travel in the Red Sea Region''. Proceedings of Red Sea Project I held in the British Museum October 2002, pp. 93-104. Edited by Paul Lunde and Alexandra Porter. ISBN 1841716227.</ref>

The Silk Road extends from Guangzhou, located in [[Northern and southern China|southern China]], to present day [[Brunei]], [[Myanmar]] (Burma) [[Thailand]], [[Malacca]], [[Ceylon]], [[India]], [[Pakistan]], [[the Philippines]], [[Iran]] and [[Iraq]]. In [[Europe]] it extends from [[Israel]], [[Lebanon]] (Collectively, the [[Levant]]), [[Egypt]], and [[Italy]] (Historically [[Venice]]) in the [[Mediterranean Sea]] to other European ports or caravan routes such as the great [[Hanseatic League]] fairs via the [[Spanish road]] and other Alpine routes. This water route in some sources is called the Indian Ocean Maritime System.

== Background==

===Cross-continental journeys===

As the [[domestication]] of [[pack animal]]s and the development of [[shipping]] technology both increased the capacity for [[prehistory|prehistoric]] peoples to carry heavier loads over greater distances, [[culture|cultural exchange]]s and [[trade]] developed rapidly.

In addition, grassland provides fertile grazing, water, and easy passage for [[Caravan (travellers)|caravan]]s. The vast grassland [[steppes]] of Asia enable [[merchant]]s to travel immense distances, from the shores of the [[Pacific]] to [[Africa]] and deep into [[Europe]], without trespassing on agricultural lands and arousing hostility.

===Prehistoric transport and trade===

The ancient peoples of the [[Sahara]] imported domesticated animals from [[Asia]] between 6000 and 4000 BCE. In [[Nabta Playa]] by the end of the [[7th millennium BCE]], [[Predynastic Egypt|prehistoric Egyptians]] had imported [[goat]]s and [[sheep]] from [[Southwest Asia]].<ref>[http://www.comp-archaeology.org/WendorfSAA98.html Fred Wendorf and Romuald Schild, 2000. ''Late Neolithic megalithic structures at Nabta Playa (Sahara), southwestern Egypt''].</ref>

Foreign [[Cultural artifact|artifact]]s dating to the [[5th millennium BCE]] in the [[Badarian]] culture in [[Predynastic Egypt|Egypt]] indicate contact with distant [[Syria]]. In [[predynastic Egypt]], by the beginning of the [[4th millennium BCE]], [[ancient Egyptian]]s in [[Maadi]] were importing [[pottery]]<ref>[http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/neolithic/maadi.html Maadi Culture<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> as well as [[construction]] ideas from [[Canaan]].

By the [[4th millennium BCE]] [[shipping]] was well established, and the [[donkey]] and possibly the [[dromedary]] had been domesticated. Domestication of the [[Bactrian camel]] and use of the [[horse]] for [[transport]] then followed. Charcoal samples found in the tombs of [[Nekhen]], which were dated to the [[Naqada]] I and II periods, have been identified as [[cedar]] from [[Lebanon]].<ref>

{{cite web

|url=http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/hierakonpolis.htm

|title=Egypt: Hierakonpolis, A Feature Tour Egypt Story

|publisher=www.touregypt.net

|accessdate=2008-07-09

|last=Parsons

|first=Marie

}}

</ref> [[Predynastic Egypt]]ians of the [[Naqada|Naqada I period]] also imported [[obsidian]] from [[History of Ethiopia|Ethiopia]], used to shape [[blade]]s and other objects from [[Lithic flake|flake]]s.<ref>Barbara G. Aston, James A. Harrell, Ian Shaw (2000). Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw editors. "Stone," in ''Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology,'' Cambridge, 5-77, pp. 46-47. Also note: Barbara G. Aston (1994). "Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels," ''Studien zur Archäologie und Geschichte Altägyptens'' 5, Heidelberg, pp. 23-26. (See on-line posts: [http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/stone/obsidian.html] and [http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/foreignrelations/obsidian.html].)</ref> The [[Naqada]]ns traded with [[Nubia]] to the south, the oases of the [[Western Desert|western desert]] to the west, and the cultures of the [[eastern Mediterranean]] to the east.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shaw|first=Ian|title=The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|location=Oxford, England|page=61|isbn=0-500-05074-0 }}</ref>

[[Pottery]] and other [[artifact (archaeology)|artifact]]s from the [[Levant]] that date to the [[Naqada]]n era have been found in [[ancient Egypt]].<ref>[http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/foreignrelations/palestinepotteryinnegade.html Branislav Andelkovic, 1995. ''The Relations between Early Bronze Age I Canaanites and Upper Egyptians'', Belgrade, p. 58, map 2]. Branislav Andelkovic, 2002. Southern Canaan as an Egyptian Protodynastic Colony. ''Cahiers Caribéens d`Egyptologie'' 3-4: 75-92.</ref> Egyptian [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifact]]s dating to this era have been found in [[Canaan]]<ref>[http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/foreignrelations/negadepotteryinpalestine.html Branislav Andelkovic, 1995, pp. 68-69, map 1]; Branislav Andelkovic 2002.</ref> and other regions of the [[Near East]], including [[Tell Brak]]<ref>[http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/seals/mapcompare.html ''Places where cylinder seals similar to that from Naqada tomb 1863 have been found''].</ref> and [[Uruk]] and [[Susa]]<ref>[http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/seals/meso.html Dominique Collon, 1987. ''First Impressions, Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East'', London, pp. 13-14].</ref> in [[Mesopotamia]].

By the second half of the 4th millennium BCE, the gemstone [[lapis lazuli]] was being traded from its only known source in the ancient world — [[Badakshan]], in what is now northeastern [[Afghanistan]] — as far as [[Mesopotamia]] and [[Egypt]]. By the 3rd millennium BCE, the [[lapis lazuli]] trade was extended to [[Harappa]], [[Lothal]] and [[Mohenjo-daro]] in the [[Indus Valley Civilization]] (Ancient India) of modern day [[Pakistan]] and northwestern [[India]]. The Indus Valley was also known as [[Meluhha]], the earliest [[Indian maritime history|maritime]] trading partner of the [[Sumer]]ians and [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadians]] in Mesopotamia.

[[Shipbuilding]] was known to the [[Ancient Egypt]]ians as early as 3000 BCE,<ref name="AIA">Ward, Cheryl. "[http://www.archaeology.org/0105/abstracts/abydos3.html World's Oldest Planked Boats]", in ''[[Archaeology (magazine)|Archaeology]]'' (Volume 54, Number 3, May/June 2001). [[Archaeological Institute of America]].</ref><ref name="AIA2">Schuster, Angela M.H. "[http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/abydos.html This Old Boat]", Dec. 11, 2000. [[Archaeological Institute of America]].</ref> and perhaps earlier.<ref name="AIA2" /> [[Ancient Egypt]]ians knew how to assemble [[plank]]s of [[wood]] into a [[hull (ship)|ship hull]], with woven [[strap]]s used to lash the planks together,<ref name="AIA" /> and [[Cyperus papyrus|reeds]] or [[grass]] stuffed between the planks helped to seal the seams.<ref name="AIA" /> The [[Archaeological Institute of America]] reports<ref name="AIA" /> that the earliest dated ship — 75 feet long, dating to 3000 BCE<ref name="AIA2" /> — may have possibly belonged to [[Hor-Aha|Pharaoh Aha]].<ref name="AIA2" />

An [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] [[colony]] stationed in southern [[Canaan]] dates to slightly before the [[First Dynasty of Egypt|First Dynasty]].<ref>Naomi Porat and Edwin van den Brink (editor), "An Egyptian Colony in Southern Palestine During the Late Predynastic to Early Dynastic," in ''The Nile Delta in Transition: 4th to 3rd Millennium BC'' (1992), pp. 433-440.</ref> [[Narmer]] had [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] pottery produced in [[Canaan]] — with his name stamped on vessels — and exported back to [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]],<ref name="Naomi">Naomi Porat, "Local Industry of Egyptian Pottery in Southern Palestine During the Early Bronze I Period," in ''Bulletin of the Egyptological, Seminar 8'' (1986/1987), pp. 109-129. See also [http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/foreignrelations/1stdynegyppotsinpalestine.html University College London web post, 2000].</ref> from regions such as [[Tel Arad|Arad]], [[Besor|En Besor]], [[Rafah|Rafiah]], and [[Tel Erani]].<ref name="Naomi" /> In 1994 excavators discovered an incised ceramic [[sherd|shard]] with the [[serekh]] sign of [[Narmer]], dating to circa 3000 BCE. Mineralogical studies reveal the shard to be a fragment of a wine jar exported from the [[Nile]] valley to [[Palestine]]. The ancient harbor constructed in [[Lothal]], [[India]], around 2400 BCE is the oldest [[shipbuilding|seafaring]] harbour known.<ref name="RaoQ">{{cite book

| title = Lothal

| publisher = [[Archaeological Survey of India]]

| author = [[S. R. Rao]]

| pages = 27–29

| year = 1985

}}</ref>

[[File:FuneraryPaddlingBoatW-TombOfMeketre MetropolitanMuseum.png|thumb|right|200px|Model of a paddling funerary boat from the tomb of [[Meketre]]. From the time of the [[Twelfth dynasty of Egypt]], early in the reign of [[Amenemhat I]], circa 1931&ndash;1975 BCE.]]

===Egyptian maritime trade===

The [[Palermo stone]] mentions King [[Sneferu]] of the [[Fourth dynasty of Egypt|4th Dynasty]] sending ship to import high-quality [[cedar]] from [[Lebanon]] (see [[Sneferu]]). In one scene in the pyramid of Pharaoh [[Sahure]] of the [[Fifth dynasty of Egypt|Fifth Dynasty]], Egyptians are returning with huge [[cedar]] trees. Sahure's name is found stamped on a thin piece of gold on a [[Lebanon]] chair, and 5th dynasty [[cartouche]]s were found in Lebanon stone vessels. Other scenes in his temple depict [[Syria]]n bears. The [[Palermo stone]] also mentions expeditions to [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]] as well as to the [[diorite]] quarries northwest of [[Abu Simbel]].

The oldest known expedition to the [[Land of Punt]] was organized by Sahure, which apparently yielded a quantity of [[myrrh]], along with [[malachite]] and [[electrum]]. Around 1950 BCE, in the reign of [[Mentuhotep III]], an officer named [[Hennu]] made one or more voyages to Punt. In the 15th century BCE, [[Nehsi]] conducted a very famous expedition for Queen [[Hatshepsut]] to obtain [[myrrh]]; a report of that voyage survives on a [[relief]] in Hatshepsut's funerary temple at [[Deir el-Bahri]]. Several of her successors, including [[Thutmoses III]], also organized expeditions to Punt.

===Trans-Saharan trade===

''Main article: [[Trans-Saharan trade]].''

The [[Kharga Oasis|Darb el-Arbain]] trade route, passing through [[Kharga]] in the south and [[Asyut]] in the north, was used from as early as the [[Old Kingdom of Egypt]] for the transport and trade of [[gold]], [[ivory]], [[spice]]s, [[wheat]], [[animal]]s and [[plant]]s.<ref>Jobbins, Jenny. "The 40 days' nightmare," in ''Al-Ahram,'' 13–19 November 2003, Issue No. 664. Published in Cairo, Egypt.</ref> Later, [[Ancient Rome|Ancient Roman]]s would protect the route by lining it with varied forts and small outposts, some guarding large settlements complete with cultivation.<ref>Please refer to [[Kharga Oasis]].</ref> Described by [[Herodotus]] as a road "traversed ... in forty days," it became by his time an important land route facilitating trade between [[Nubia]] and [[Egypt]].<ref>Smith, Dr. Stuart Tyson. ''Nubia: History,'' University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Anthropology, <http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/stsmith/research/nubia_history.html>. Retrieved January 21, 2009.</ref> Its maximum extent was northward from [[Kobbei]], 25 miles north of [[al-Fashir]], passing through the desert, through [[Bir Natrum]] and [[Wadi Howar]], and ending in [[Egypt]].<ref>Burr, J. Millard and Robert O. Collins, ''Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster'', Markus Wiener Publishers: Princeton, 2006, ISBN 1-55876-405-4, pp. 6-7.</ref>

===Ancient canal construction===

The legendary [[Sesostris]] (likely either [[Pharaoh]] [[Senusret II]] or [[Senusret III]] of the [[Twelfth dynasty of Egypt]]<ref>Please refer to [[Sesostris#Modern research]].</ref><ref>[[J. H. Breasted]] attributes the ancient canal's early construction to [[Senusret III]], up through the first cataract. Please refer to [[J. H. Breasted]], ''[[Ancient Records of Egypt]]'', Part One, Chicago 1906, &sect;&sect;642-648</ref>) is said to have started work on an ancient [[Suez Canal|"Suez" Canal]] joining the [[River Nile]] with the [[Red Sea]]. This ancient account is corroborated by [[Aristotle]], [[Pliny the Elder]], and [[Strabo]].<ref>Please refer to [[Suez Canal#2nd millennium BC]].</ref>

<Blockquote>One of their kings tried to make a canal to it (for it would have been of no little advantage to them for the whole region to have become navigable; Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try), but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it.<ref>[[Aristotle]], '''[[Meteorology (Aristotle)|Meteorology]]''' (1.15) [http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/meteorology/book1.html]</ref></Blockquote>

<blockquote>165. Next comes the Tyro tribe and, on the Red Sea, the harbour of the Daneoi, from which Sesostris, king of Egypt, intended to carry a ship-canal to where the Nile flows into what is known as the Delta; this is a distance of over 60 miles. Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again Ptolemy II, who made a trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep and about 35 miles long, as far as the Bitter Lakes.<ref>[[Pliny the Elder|The Elder Pliny]] and John Healey ''Natural History'' (6.33.165) Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (5 Feb 2004) ISBN 978-0140444131 p.70 [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JvyF-8NXFbIC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=Pliny+the+elder+sesostris+canal&source=bl&ots=t1np0DY4S3&sig=i0wzXRGizdz6DK8e6CTGA1wFcoI&hl=en&ei=BieVSv3GE-PKjAfU-OnnDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#v=onepage&q=&f=false]</ref></blockquote>

Remnants of an ancient west-east canal, running through the [[ancient Egypt]]ian cities of [[Bubastis]], [[Avaris|Pi-Ramesses]], and [[Pithom]] were discovered by [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] and his cadre of engineers and cartographers in 1799.<ref>[http://books.google.de/books?id=fj0GAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA351&lpg=RA2-PA351&dq=Gratien+Le+P%C3%A8re&source=bl&ots=h-ZAEgY_yZ&sig=2vmD6bS3Cj-XwCRdc_uLueFseXQ&hl=fr&ei=6blFStHdO8PdsgaKxaQs&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9 ''Descriptions de l'Égypte'', Volume 11 (État Moderne)], containing ''Mémoire sur la communication de la mer des Indes à la Méditerranée par la mer Rouge et l'Isthme de Sueys'', par M. J.M. Le Père, ingénieur en chef, inspecteur divisionnaire au corps impérial des ponts et chaussées, membre de l'Institut d'Égypte, p. 21 - 186</ref><ref name="Rappoport" /><ref>Their reports were published in [[Description de l'Égypte]]</ref><ref>Montet, Pierre. ''Everyday Life In The Days Of Ramesses The Great'' (1981), page 184. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.</ref><ref>Silver, Morris. ''Ancient Economies II'' (Apr. 6, 1998), "5c. Evidence for Earlier Canals." [http://www.angelfire.com/ms/ancecon/index.html ANCIENT ECONOMIES II], retrieved Aug. 8, 2008. Economics Department, City College of New York.</ref> Other evidence seems to indicate the existence of an ancient canal around the 13th century BC, during the time of [[Ramesses II]].<ref name="Britannica" /><ref>Hess, Richard S. Rev. of [http://www.denverseminary.edu/dj/articles1998/0100/0114.php ''Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition''], by James K. Hoffmeier. ''The Denver Journal'' 1 (1 January 1998). Accessed 14 May 2008.</ref><ref>Encyclopaedia of the Orient, [http://lexicorient.com/cgi-bin/eo-direct-frame.pl?http://i-cias.com/e.o/suez_can.htm "Suez Canal"]. Accessed 14 May 2008.</ref><ref>Hassan, Fekri A. [http://www.e-c-h-o.org/khd/location.html Kafr Hassan Dawood On-line], 17 August 2003. Accessed 14 May 2008.</ref><ref>{{es icon}} Martínez Babon, Javier. [http://www.realidade.com.br/rih2/egipto.htm "Consideraciones sobre la Marinay la Guerra durante el Egipto Faraónico"]. Accessed 14 May 2008.</ref> Later construction efforts continued during the reigns of [[Necho II]], [[Darius I of Persia]] and [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]].

<blockquote><p>"Psammetichus left a son called Necos, who succeeded him upon the throne. This prince was the first to attempt the construction of the canal to the Red Sea — a work completed afterwards by Darius the Persian — the length of which is four days’ journey, and the width is such as to admit of two triremes being rowed along it abreast. The water is derived from the Nile, which the canal leaves a little above the city of Bubastis, near Patumus, the Arabian town, being continued thence until it joins the Red Sea." <ref>Herodotus (1996 edition), p. 185.</ref></p></blockquote>

<blockquote><p>"This [the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea] was begun by Necho II [610 BCE - 595 BCE], and completed by Darius I, who set up stelae c. 490 [BCE], ... and later restored by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Trajan and Hadrian, and Amr ibn el-'Asi, the Muslim conqueror of Egypt. Its length from Tell el-Maskhuta to Suez was about 85 km.<ref>Baines and Málek (1984), p. 48.</ref></p></blockquote>

[[Shipping]] over the [[Nile River]] and from [[Old Cairo]] and through [[Suez]] continued further through the efforts of either [['Amr ibn al-'As]],<ref name="Britannica">''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 11th edition, s.v. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Suez_Canal "Suez Canal"]. Accessed 08 August 2008.</ref> [[Umar|Omar the Great]],<ref name="Rappoport">Rappoport, S. (Doctor of Philosophy, Basel). ''History of Egypt'' (undated, early 20th century), Volume 12, Part B, Chapter V: "The Waterways of Egypt," pages 248-257. London: The Grolier Society.</ref> or [[Trajan]].<ref name="Rappoport" /><ref name="Britannica" /> The [[Abbasid]] [[Caliph]] [[al-Mansur]] is said to have ordered this ancient canal closed so as to prevent supplies from reaching [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabian]] detractors.<ref name="Rappoport" /><ref name="Britannica" />

[[File:ChineseJadePlaques.JPG|thumb|250px|Chinese [[jade]] and [[steatite]] plaques, in the [[Scythian]]-style animal art of the steppes. 4th&ndash;3rd century BCE. [[British Museum]].]][[File:PazyrikHorseman.JPG|thumb|160px|A [[Scythian]] horseman from the general area of the [[Ili river]], [[Pazyryk]], c.[[300 BCE]].]]

===Chinese and Central Asian contacts===

From the 2nd millennium BCE [[nephrite]] [[jade]] was being traded from [[mining|mines]] in the region of [[Yarkent County|Yarkand]] and [[Khotan]] to [[China]]. Significantly, these mines were not very far from the [[lapis lazuli]] and [[spinel]] ("Balas Ruby") mines in [[Badakhshan]] and, although separated by the formidable [[Pamir Mountains]], routes across them were, apparently, in use from very early times.

The [[Tarim mummies]], mummies of non-Mongoloid, apparently Caucasoid, individuals, have been found in the [[Tarim Basin]], in the area of [[Loulan]] located along the Silk Road 200&nbsp;km East of Yingpan, dating to as early as 1600 BCE and suggesting very ancient contacts between East and West. It has been suggested that these mummified remains may have been of people related to the [[Tocharians]] whose [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language]] remained in use in the [[Tarim Basin]] (in modern day [[Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region]] of [[China]]) until the 8th century.

Following contacts of metropolitan China with nomadic western border territories in the 8th century BCE, [[gold]] was introduced from [[Central Asia]], and Hotan Kashteshi Hotan jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the [[steppe]]s, adopting the [[Scythian]]-style animal art of the steppes (descriptions of animals locked in combat). This style is particularly reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of [[gold]] and [[bronze]] with alternate versions in [[jade]] and [[steatite]].

The expansion of [[Scythians|Scythian]] cultures stretching from the Hungarian plain and the [[Carpathian Mountains|Carpathian]]s to the Chinese [[Kansu]] Corridor and linking Iran, and the Middle East with Northern India and the [[Punjab region|Punjab]], undoubtedly played an important role in the development of the Silk Road. Scythians accompanied the [[Assyria]]n [[Esarhaddon]] on his invasion of Egypt, and their distinctive triangular arrowheads have been found as far south as [[Aswan]]. These nomadic peoples were dependent upon neighbouring settled populations for a number of important technologies, and in addition to raiding vulnerable settlements for these commodities, also encouraged long distance merchants as a source of income through the enforced payment of tariffs. [[Soghdians|Soghdian]] Scythian merchants played a vital role in later periods in the development of the Silk Road.

===Persian Royal Road===

[[File:Map achaemenid empire en.png|250px|thumb|left|[[Achaemenid Persian Empire]] at its greatest extent.]]

By the time of [[Herodotus]] (c. 475 BCE), the [[Persian Empire|Persian]] [[Royal Road]] ran some 2,857&nbsp;km from the city of [[Susa]] on the Karun (250&nbsp;km east of the Tigris)to the port of Smyrna (modern [[İzmir]] in [[Turkey]]) on the [[Aegean Sea]].<ref>Please refer to [[Royal Road]].</ref> It was maintained and protected by the [[Achaemenid Empire]] (c.500&ndash;330 BCE), and had postal stations and relays at regular intervals. By having fresh horses and riders ready at each relay, royal couriers could carry messages the entire distance in nine days, though normal travellers took about three months. This [[Royal Road]] linked into many other routes. Some of these, such as the routes to India and Central Asia, were also protected by the [[Achaemenids]], encouraging regular contact between India, Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. There are accounts in the biblical [[Book of Esther]] of dispatches being sent from Susa to provinces as far out as India and [[Kingdom of Kush|Cush]] during the reign of [[Xerxes I of Persia|Xerxes the Great]] (485&ndash;465 BCE).

==History==

===Hellenistic era===

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File:EuthydemusI.jpg|Coin depicting the [[Greco-Bactrian]] king [[Euthydemus]] (230–200 BCE)

File:UrumqiWarrior.jpg|Probable Greek soldier in the [[Sampul tapestry]], woollen wall hanging, 3rd–2nd century BCE, Sampul, [[Urumqi]] [[Xinjiang]] Museum.

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The first major step in opening the Silk Road between the East and the West came with the expansion of [[Alexander the Great]]'s empire into [[Central Asia]]. In August 329 BCE, at the mouth of the [[Fergana Valley]] in [[Tajikistan]] he founded the city of [[Alexandria Eschate]] or "Alexandria The Furthest".<ref>Prevas, John. (2004). ''Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-Fated Journey across Asia'', p. 121. De Capo Press, Cambridge, Mass. ISBN 0-306-81268-1.</ref> This later became a major staging point on the northern Silk Route.

In 323 BCE, [[Alexander the Great]]’s successors, the [[Ptolemaic dynasty]], took control of Egypt. They actively promoted trade with [[Mesopotamia]], [[India]], and [[East Africa]] through their [[Red Sea]] ports and over land. This was assisted by a number of intermediaries, especially the [[Nabataean]]s and other [[Arab]]s.

The [[Greeks]] remained in [[Central Asia]] for the next three centuries, first through the administration of the [[Seleucid Empire]], and then with the establishment of the [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]] in [[Bactria]]. They continued to expand eastward, especially during the reign of [[Euthydemus]] (230–200 BCE) who extended his control beyond [[Alexandria Eschate]] to [[Sogdiana]]. There are indications that he may have led expeditions as far as [[Kashgar]] in [[Chinese Turkestan]], leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 200 BCE. The Greek historian [[Strabo]] writes ''"they extended their empire even as far as the [[Seres]] (China) and the Phryni."'' <ref>http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Strab.+11.11.1 Strabo XI.XI.I.</ref>

===Chinese exploration of Central Asia===

{{Main|Sino-Roman relations|Sino-Indian relations|History of the Han Dynasty}}

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File:Woven silk, Western Han Dynasty.jpg|Woven [[silk]] textile from Tomb No. 1 at [[Mawangdui]], [[Changsha]], [[Hunan]] province, China, [[History of the Han Dynasty|dated to the Western Han Era]], 2nd century BCE.

File:WhiteHanBronzeMirror.JPG|A late [[Zhou Dynasty]] or early [[Han Dynasty]] (c. 300&ndash;200 BCE) Chinese [[TLV mirror|bronze mirror]] inlaid with [[glass]] and showing influence from [[Hellenistic civilization]] in [[Central Asia]]

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The next step came around 130 BCE, with the embassies of the [[Han Dynasty]] to Central Asia, following the reports of the ambassador [[Zhang Qian]]<ref>[http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18006 ''Silk Road, North China'', C.M. Hogan, the Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham]</ref> (who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the [[Yuezhi]] against the [[Xiongnu]]). The Chinese Emperor [[Emperor Wu of Han China|Wu Di]] became interested in developing commercial relationship with the sophisticated urban civilizations of [[Ferghana]], [[Bactria]] and [[Parthian Empire]]: "The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus: [[Ferghana]] ([[Dayuan]]) and the possessions of [[Bactria]] ([[Ta-Hsia]]) and [[Parthian Empire]] ([[Anxi]]) are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China" (''Hou Hanshu'', [[Later Han History]]).

[[File:HanHorse.jpg|thumb|left|215px|A pottery horse head and neck (broken from the body) of the Late [[Han Dynasty]] (1st&ndash;2nd century CE)]]

The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the tall and powerful horses in the possession of the [[Dayuan]] (named "Heavenly horses"), which were of capital importance in fighting the nomadic [[Xiongnu]]. The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every year, to these countries and as far as [[Seleucid]] Syria. "Thus more embassies were dispatched to Anxi [Parthia], Yancai [who later joined the [[Alans]] ], Lijian [Syria under the Seleucids], Tiaozhi [Chaldea], and [[Tianzhu]] [northwestern India]… As a rule, rather more than ten such missions went forward in the course of a year, and at the least five or six." (''Hou Hanshu'', Later Han History). The Chinese campaigned in Central Asia on several occasions, and direct encounters between Han troops and Roman legionaries (probably captured or recruited as mercenaries by the Xiongnu) are recorded, particularly in the 36 BC battle of [[Sogdiana]] (Joseph Needham, Sidney Shapiro). It has been suggested that the Chinese [[crossbow]] was transmitted to the Roman world on such occasions, although the Greek [[gastraphetes]] provides an alternative origin. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy suggest that in 36 BCE, a "Han expedition into central Asia, west of Jaxartes River, apparently encountered and defeated a contingent of Roman legionaries. The Romans may have been part of [[Antony]]'s army invading [[Parthia]]. [[Sogdiana]] (modern [[Bukhara]]), east of the Oxus River, on the [[Polytimetus]] River, was apparently the most easterly penetration ever made by Roman forces in Asia. The margin of Chinese victory appears to have been their crossbows, whose bolts and darts seem easily to have penetrated Roman shields and armor."<ref>R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy, ''The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History from 3500 BC to the Present'', Fourth Edition (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993), 133, apparently relying on Homer H. Dubs, "A Roman City in Ancient China", in ''Greece and Rome'', Second Series, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Oct., 1957), pp. 139-148</ref> The Roman historian [[Florus]] also describes the visit of numerous envoys, included ''[[Seres]]'' (Chinese), to the first Roman Emperor [[Caesar Augustus|Augustus]], who reigned between 27 BC and 14:

[[File:Xihan rhino, gold & silver inlays.JPG|thumb|200px|A Chinese [[Western Han Dynasty]] (202 BC – 9 CE) bronze [[rhinoceros]] with gold and silver inlay]]

: ''"Even the rest of the nations of the world which were not subject to the imperial sway were sensible of its grandeur, and looked with reverence to the Roman people, the great conqueror of nations. Thus even [[Scythians]] and [[Sarmatians]] sent envoys to seek the friendship of Rome. Nay, the [[Seres]] came likewise, and the [[India]]ns who dwelt beneath the vertical sun, bringing presents of precious stones and pearls and elephants, but thinking all of less moment than the vastness of the journey which they had undertaken, and which they said had occupied four years. In truth it needed but to look at their complexion to see that they were people of another world than ours."'' ("Cathay and the way thither", [[Henry Yule]]).

The "Silk Road" essentially came into being from the 1st century BC, following these efforts by Uyghurs in East Turkestan to consolidate a road to the Western world and [[India]], both through direct settlements in the area of the [[Tarim Basin]] and diplomatic relations with the countries of the [[Dayuan]], [[Parthians]] and [[Bactria]]ns further west.

A maritime "Silk Route" opened up between Chinese-controlled [[Giao Chỉ]] (centred in modern [[Vietnam]] [see map above], near [[Hanoi]]) probably by the 1st century. It extended, via ports on the coasts of [[India]] and [[Sri Lanka]], all the way to [[Ancient Rome|Roman]]-controlled ports in [[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]] and the [[Nabataean]] territories on the northeastern coast of the [[Red Sea]].

===The Roman Empire===

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File:Menade.jpg|Maenad in silk dress, [[Naples]] National Museum.

File:Textile0001.jpg|[[Sassanid]] silk twill textile of a [[Simurgh|Senmerv]] in a beaded surround, 6–7th century

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Soon after the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] conquest of [[Egypt]] in 30 BC, regular communications and trade between [[India]], [[Southeast Asia]], [[Sri Lanka]], [[China]], the [[Middle East]], [[Africa]] and [[Europe]] blossomed on an unprecedented scale. The party of [[Maes Titianus|Maës Titianus]] became the travellers who penetrated farthest east along the Silk Road from the Mediterranean world, probably with the aim of regularizing contacts and reducing the role of middlemen, during one of the lulls in Rome's intermittent wars with [[Parthia]], which repeatedly obstructed movement along the Silk Road. Land and maritime routes were closely linked, and novel products, technologies and ideas began to spread across the continents of Europe, [[Asia]] and Africa. Intercontinental trade and communication became regular, organized, and protected by the 'Great Powers.' Intense [[Roman commerce|trade with the Roman Empire]] soon followed, confirmed by the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] craze for Chinese [[silk]] (supplied through the [[Parthians]]), even though the Romans thought silk was obtained from trees. This belief was affirmed by [[Seneca the Younger]] in his [[Phaedra (Seneca)|Phaedra]] and by [[Virgil]] in his [[Georgics]]. Notably, [[Pliny the Elder]] knew better. Speaking of the ''bombyx'' or silk moth, he wrote in his [[Natural Histories]] "They weave webs, like spiders, that become a luxurious clothing material for women, called silk."<ref>[[Pliny the Elder]], ''[[Natural Histories]]'' 11.xxvi.76</ref>

The [[Roman Senate|Senate]] issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the importation of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered to be decadent and immoral:

: ''"I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes… Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body"'' ([[Seneca the Younger]] (''c.''3 BC–65, Declamations Vol. I).

The ''[[Hou Hanshu]]'' records that the first Roman envoy arrived in China by this maritime route in 166, initiating a series of [[Roman embassies to China]].

===Medieval age===

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File:YangzhouKatarinaVilioniTomb1342.jpg|1342 tomb of [[Katarina Vilioni]], member of an Italian trading family in [[Yangzhou]].

File:Cernuschi Museum 20060812 180.jpg|A Chinese [[Tang Dynasty]] (618&ndash;907) [[terracotta]] statuette of a foreign male dancer from the west, with traces of [[polychrome]]

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[[File:Cernuschi Museum 20060812 150.jpg|thumb|right|150px|A Westerner on a camel, [[Northern Wei Dynasty]] (386&ndash;534)]]

[[File:ForeignerWithWineskin-Earthenware-TangDynasty-ROM-May8-08.png|thumb|right|150px|A ''[[sancai]]'' statue of foreigner with a [[wineskin]], [[Tang Dynasty]] (618&ndash;907).]]

The main traders during Antiquity were the Indian and Bactrian traders, then from the 5th to the 8th century CE the Sogdian traders, then afterward the Persian traders.

The unification of Central Asia and Northern India within [[Kushan]] empire in the first to third centuries reinforced the role of the powerful merchants from [[Bactria]] and [[Taxila]].<ref name= "Iranica">Sogdian Trade, ''Encyclopedia Iranica'', (retrieved 15 June 2007) <http://www.iranica.com/newsite></ref> They fostered multi-cultural interaction as indicated by their 2nd century treasure hoards filled with products from the Greco-Roman world, China and India, such as in the [[Bagram|archeological site of Begram]].

The heyday of the Silk Road corresponds, on its west end, to the [[Byzantine Empire]], [[Sassanid Empire]] Period to [[Il Khanate]] Period in the [[Nile]]-[[Oxus]] section and [[Three Kingdoms]] to [[Yuan Dynasty]] in the Sinitic zone in its east end. Trade between East and West also developed on the sea, between [[Alexandria]] in Egypt and [[Guangzhou]] in China, fostering across the [[Indian Ocean]]. The Silk Road represents an early phenomenon of political and cultural integration due to inter-regional trade. In its heyday, the Silk Road sustained an international culture that strung together groups as diverse as the [[Magyars]], [[Armenia]]ns, and [[China|Chinese]].<br clear=left>

Under its strong integrating dynamics on the one hand and the impacts of change it transmitted on the other, tribal societies previously living in isolation along the Silk Road or pastoralists who were of barbarian cultural development were drawn to the riches and opportunities of the civilizations connected by the Silk Road, taking on the trades of marauders or mercenaries. Many barbarian tribes became skilled warriors able to conquer rich cities and fertile lands, and forge strong military empires.

The [[Sogdian]]s dominated the East-West trade after the 4th century CE up to the 8th century CE, with [[Suyab]] and [[Taraz|Talas]] ranking among their main centers in the north. They were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia. Their commercial interests were protected by the resurgent military power of the [[Göktürks]], whose empire has been described as "the joint enterprise of the [[Ashina]] clan and the Soghdians".<ref>Wink, André. Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. ISBN 0391041738.</ref><ref name= "Iranica"/> Their trades with some interruptions continued in the 9th century within the framework of the [[Uighur Empire]], which until 840 extended across northern Central Asia and obtained from China enormous deliveries of silk in exchange for horses. At this time caravans of Sogdians traveling to Upper Mongolia are mentioned in Chinese sources. They played an equally important religious and cultural role. Part of the data about eastern Asia provided by Muslim geographers of the 10th century actually goes back to Sogdian data of the period 750-840 and thus shows the survival of links between east and west. However, after the end of the Uighur Empire, Sogdian trade went through a crisis. What mainly issued from Muslim Central Asia was the trade of the [[Samanids]], which resumed the northwestern road leading to the Khazars and the Urals and the northeastern one toward the nearby Turkic tribes.<ref name= "Iranica"/>

[[File:Central Asian Buddhist Monks.jpeg|thumb|left|150px|Central Asian and East-Asian Buddhist monks, [[Bezeklik]], Eastern [[Tarim Basin]], 9th-10th century.]]

The Silk Road gave rise to the clusters of military states of nomadic origins in North China, invited the [[Nestorian]], [[Manichaean]], [[Buddhist]], and later [[Islamic]] religions into [[Central Asia]] and China, created the influential [[Khazaria|Khazar Federation]] and at the end of its glory, brought about the largest continental empire ever: the [[Mongol Empire]], with its political centers strung along the Silk Road ([[Beijing]] in North China, [[Karakorum (palace)|Karakorum]] in central Mongolia, [[Sarmakhand]] in [[Transoxiana]], [[Tabriz]] in Northern Iran, [[Sarai (city)|Sarai]] and [[Astrakhan]] in lower [[Volga]], [[Solkhat]] in [[Crimea]], [[Kazan]] in Central Russia, [[Erzurum]] in eastern [[Anatolia]]), realizing the political unification of zones previously loosely and intermittently connected by material and cultural goods.

The Roman Empire, and its demand for sophisticated Asian products, crumbled in the West around the 5th century. In Central Asia, [[Islam]] expanded from the 7th century onward, bringing a stop to Chinese westward expansion at the [[Battle of Talas]] in 751. Further expansion of the Islamic Turks in Central Asia from the 10th century finished disrupting trade in that part of the world, and Buddhism almost disappeared. For much of the Middle Ages, the Islamic [[Caliphate]] in Persia often had a monopoly over much of the trade conducted across the [[Old World]] (see [[Islamic economics in the world#Age of discovery|Muslim age of discovery]] for more details).

===Mongol age===

[[File:Mongol dominions1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Mongol Empire at its height. The gray area is the later [[Timur|Timurid empire]].]]

{{See also|Mongol Empire|Pax Mongolica}}

The [[Mongol invasions|Mongol expansion]] throughout the Asian continent from around 1207 to 1360 helped bring political stability and re-establish the Silk Road (via [[Karakorum (palace)|Karakorum]]). The Chinese Mongol diplomat [[Rabban Bar Sauma]] visited the courts of Europe in 1287-1288 and provided a detailed written report back to the [[Mongols]]. Around the same time, the [[Venice|Venetian]] explorer [[Marco Polo]] became one of the first Europeans to travel the Silk Road to [[China]], and his tales, documented in ''[[The Travels of Marco Polo]]'', opened Western eyes to some of the customs of the Far East. He was not the first to bring back stories, but he was one of the widest-read. He had been preceded by numerous Christian missionaries to the East, such as [[William of Rubruck]], [[Benedykt Polak]], [[Giovanni da Pian del Carpine]], and [[Andrew of Longjumeau]]. Later envoys included [[Odoric of Pordenone]], [[Giovanni de' Marignolli]], [[John of Montecorvino]], [[Niccolò Da Conti]], or [[Ibn Battuta]], a [[Morocco|Moroccan]] [[Muslim]] traveller, who passed through the present-day [[Middle East]] and across the Silk Road from [[Tabriz]], between 1325-1354.<ref>[http://www.silk-road.com/artl/paxmongolica.shtml The Pax Mongolica], by Daniel C. Waugh, University of Washington, Seattle</ref><ref>[http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/Ibn_Battuta/Battuta's_Trip_Three.html Battuta's Travels: Part Three - Persia and Iraq]</ref>

The 13th century also saw attempts at a [[Franco-Mongol alliance]], with exchange of ambassadors and (failed) attempts at military collaboration in the [[Holy Land]] during the later [[Crusades]], though eventually the Mongols in the [[Ilkhanate]], after they had destroyed the [[Abbasid]] and [[Ayyubid]] dynasties, eventually themselves converted to Islam, and signed the 1323 [[Treaty of Aleppo]] with the surviving Muslim power, the Egyptian [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk]]s.

===Disintegration===

The fragmentation of the [[Mongol Empire]] loosened the political, cultural and economic unity of the Silk Road.

[[Turkmeni]] marching lords seized land around the western part of the Silk Road, belonging to the decaying [[Byzantine Empire]]. After the Mongol Empire, the great political powers along the Silk Road became economically and culturally separated. Accompanying the crystallization of regional states was the decline of nomad power, partly due to the devastation of the [[Black Death]] and partly due to the encroachment of sedentary civilizations equipped with [[gunpowder]].

[[Gunpowder]] and early [[modernity]] in [[Europe]] led to the integration of territorial states and increasing [[mercantilism]]. Meanwhile on the Silk Road, gunpowder and early modernity had the opposite impact: the level of integration of the Mongol Empire could not be maintained, and trade declined (though partly due to an increase in European maritime exchanges).

The Silk Road stopped serving as a shipping route for silk around 1400.{{Citation needed|More likely 1453, and the Ottoman supremacy at Constantinople. Ottomani rulers of the day were anti-western, remembering the crusades, and aware of the reconquesta of Spain, so expressed their displeasure by embargoing trade with the west. Things had eased a bit ca a century later, and Venice was able to cut an uneasy deal with the Ottomans, regaining for a time, some of their economic clout as middlemen. In any event, a bare date sans rationale or explanation is insufficient.|'''[[User:Fabartus|Fra]]'''<font color="green">[[User talk:Fabartus|nkB]]</font>|date=June 2008}}

===The great explorers: Europe reaching for Asia===

The disappearance of the Silk Road following the end of the Mongols was one of the main factors that stimulated the Europeans to reach the prosperous Chinese empire through another route, especially by sea. Tremendous profits were to be obtained for anyone who could achieve a direct trade connection with Asia.

[[File:Mid15thCenturyPotteryNorthernItaly.jpg|thumb|left|Italian pottery of the mid-15th century was heavily influenced by [[Chinese ceramics]]. A ''[[Sancai]]'' ("Three colors") plate (left), and a [[Ming dynasty|Ming]]-type blue-white vase (right), made in Northern Italy, mid-15th century. [[Musée du Louvre]].]]When he went West in 1492, [[Christopher Columbus]] reportedly wished to create yet another Silk Route to China. It was initially a great disappointment to have found a continent "in-between" before recognizing the potential of a "New World."

In 1594, [[Willem Barents]] left [[Amsterdam]] with two ships to search for the [[Northern Sea Route|Northeast passage]] north of Siberia, on to eastern Asia. He reached the west coast of [[Novaya Zemlya]] and followed it northward, being finally forced to turn back when confronted with its northern extremity. By the end of the 17th century, the Russians re-established a land trade route between Europe and China under the name of the [[Great Siberian Road]].

The desire to trade directly with China and India was also the main driving force behind the expansion of the Portuguese beyond Africa after 1480, followed by the [[Netherlands]] and [[Great Britain]] from the 17th century. While the Portuguese (and, subsequently, other Europeans) were entering China from its southern coast, by the sea route, the question arose as to whether it happens to be the same country as [[Cathay]] which Marco had reached by the overland route. By ca. 1600, the Jesuits stationed in China, led by Matteo Ricci, were pretty sure that it was, but others were not convinced yet. To check the situation on the ground, the Jesuit Lay Brother [[Bento de Góis]] travelled in 1603-1605 from India via [[Afghanistan]] and one of the routes of the traditional Silk Road (via [[Badakhshan]], the [[Pamirs]], [[Yarkant County|Yarkand]], [[Kucha]], and [[Turpan]] to the [[Ming Dynasty|Ming China]]'s border as [[Suzhou District|Suzhou, Gansu]].<ref>[[Henry Yule]] (1866), p. 530.</ref>

[[Gottfried Leibniz|Leibniz]], echoing the prevailing perception in Europe until the [[Industrial Revolution]], wrote in the 17th century that: ''Everything exquisite and admirable comes from the East Indies... Learned people have remarked that in the whole world there is no commerce comparable to that of China.''

In the 18th century, [[Adam Smith]] declared that China had been one of the most prosperous nations in the world, but that it had remained stagnant for a long time and its wages always were low and the lower classes were particularly poor:<ref>"The accounts of all travellers, inconsistent in many other respects, agree in the low wages of labour, and in the difficulty which a labourer finds in bringing up a family in China. If by digging the ground a whole day he can get what will purchase a small quantity of rice in the evening, he is contented. The condition of artificers is, if possible, still worse. Instead of waiting indolently in their work-houses, for the calls of their customers, as in Europe, they are continually running about the streets with the tools of their respective trades, offering their service, and as it were begging employment. The poverty of the lower ranks of people in China far surpasses that of the most beggarly nations in Europe. In the neighbourhood of Canton many hundred, it is commonly said, many thousand families have no habitation on the land, but live constantly in little fishing boats upon the rivers and canals. The subsistence which they find there is so scanty that they are eager to fish up the nastiest garbage thrown overboard from any European ship. Any carrion, the carcass of a dead dog or cat, for example, though half putrid and stinking, is as welcome to them as the most wholesome food to the people of other countries. Marriage is encouraged in China, not by the profitableness of children, but by the liberty of destroying them. In all great towns several are every night exposed in the street, or drowned like puppies in the water. The performance of this horrid office is even said to be the avowed business by which some people earn their subsistence." ([[Adam Smith]], [[The Wealth of Nations]], 1776).</ref>

: China has long been one of the richest, that is, one of the most fertile, best cultivated, most industrious, and most populous countries in the world. It seems, however, to have been long stationary. Marco Polo, who visited it more than five hundred years ago, describes its cultivation, industry, and populousness, almost in the same terms as travellers in the present time describe them. It had perhaps, even long before his time, acquired that full complement of riches which the nature of its laws and institutions permits it to acquire. ([[Adam Smith]], [[The Wealth of Nations]], 1776).

In effect, the spirit of the Silk Road and the will to foster exchange between the East and West, as well as the lure of huge profits attached to doing so has affected much of the history of the world during these last three millennia.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}

==Cultural exchanges on the Silk Road==

[[File:StandingBuddha.jpg|thumb|120px|Standing [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]], [[Gandhara]], 1st century.]]

{{See also|Silk Road transmission of Buddhism}}

Notably, the [[Buddhist]] faith and the [[Greco-Buddhist]] culture started to travel eastward along the Silk Road, penetrating in China from around the 1st century BC.

The '''Silk Road transmission of Buddhism''' to [[China]] started in the 1st century CE with a semi-legendary account of an embassy sent to the West by the Chinese Emperor [[Emperor Ming of Han|Ming]] (58 &ndash; 75 CE). Extensive contacts however started in the 2nd century CE, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the [[Kushan]] empire into the Chinese territory of the [[Tarim Basin]], with the missionary efforts of a great number of Central Asian [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] monks to Chinese lands. The first missionaries and translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were either [[Parthia]]n, Kushan, [[Sogdian]] or [[Kuchean]].

From the 4th century onward, Chinese pilgrims also started to travel on the Silk Road to [[India]], the origin of [[Buddhism]], by themselves in order to get improved access to the original scriptures, with [[Fa-hsien]]'s pilgrimage to India (395&ndash;414), and later [[Xuan Zang]] (629&ndash;644). The legendary accounts of the holy priest [[Xuan Zang]] were described in a famous novel called ''Journey to the West'', which envisaged trials of the journey with demons but with the help of various disciples.

The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism essentially ended around the 7th century with the rise of Islam in Central Asia.

===Artistic transmission===

{{Main|Silk Road transmission of art}}

Many artistic influences transited along the Silk Road, especially through the [[Central Asia]], where [[Hellenistic]], [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]], [[India]]n and [[China|Chinese]] influence were able to intermix. In particular [[Greco-Buddhist art]] represent one of the most vivid examples of this interaction.

====Buddhist deities====

The image of the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]], originating during the 1st century in northern [[India]] (areas of [[Gandhara]] and [[Mathura, Uttar Pradesh|Mathura]]) was transmitted progressively through [[Central Asia]] and [[China]] until it reached [[Korea]] in the 4th century and [[Japan]] in the 6th century. However the transmission of many Western iconographical details are clear, such as the [[Hercules]] inspiration behind the [[Nio]] guardian deities in front of Japanese Buddhist temples,{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} and also representations of the Buddha reminiscent of Greek art such as the Buddha in [[Kamakura, Kanagawa|Kamakura]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}}

Another Buddhist deity, [[Shukongoshin]], is also an interesting case of transmission of the image of the famous Greek god [[Herakles]] to the Far-East along the Silk Road. [[Herakles]] was used in Greco-Buddhist art to represent [[Vajrapani]], the protector of the Buddha,{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} and his representation was then used in China, Korea, and Japan to depict the protector gods of Buddhist temples.[[File:WindGods.JPG|thumb|right|350px|Iconographical evolution of the Wind God. '''Left:''' Greek Wind God from [[Hadda]], 2nd century. '''Middle:''' Wind God from [[Kizil (Tarim Basin)|Kizil]], [[Tarim Basin]], 7th century. '''Right:''' Japanese Wind God [[Fujin]], 17th century.]]

====Wind god====

The name of the [[west wind]] in [[Greek language|Greek]] is [[Anemoi#West_wind_.28Zephyrus.29|Zephyr]]. Various other artistic influences from the Silk Road can be found in [[Asia]], one of the most striking being that of the Greek Wind God [[Boreas]], transiting through [[Central Asia]] and [[China]] to become the [[Japan]]ese [[Shinto]] [[wind]] [[god]] [[Fujin]].<ref>Katsumi Tanabe, "Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan," p.21: "The Japanese wind god images do not belong to a separate tradition apart from that of their Western counter-parts but share the same origins. (...) One of the characteristics of these Far Eastern wind god images is the wind bag held by this god with both hands, the origin of which can be traced back to the shawl or mantle worn by [[Boreas]]/ Oado."</ref>

===Technological transfer===

{{Main|Medieval technology}}

[[File:FraMauroShips.JPG|thumb|left|200px|[[China|Chinese]] [[junk (sailing)|junk]] and [[Atlantic]] and [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] [[ship]]s. Depicted in [[Fra Mauro map]], image above.]]

[[File:FraMauroMap.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Fra Mauro map]], [[Venice]], 1459.]]

The period of the [[High Middle Ages]] in Europe and East Asia saw major [[technology|technological]] advances, including the diffusion through the Silk Road of the precursor to movable type [[printing]], [[gunpowder]], the [[astrolabe]], and the [[compass]].

Korean maps such as the [[Kangnido]] and Islamic mapmaking seem to have influenced the emergence of the first European practical world maps, such as those of [[De Virga world map|De Virga]] or [[Fra Mauro map|Fra Mauro]]. Ramusio, a contemporary, states that Fra Mauro's map is "an improved copy of the one brought from Cathay by Marco Polo".

Large Chinese [[junk (sailing)|junks]] were also observed by these travelers and may have provided impetus to develop larger ships in Europe.

: ''"The ships, called junks, that navigate these seas carry four masts or more, some of which can be raised or lowered, and have 40 to 60 cabins for the merchants and only one tiller."'' (Text from the [[Fra Mauro map]], 09-P25)

: ''"A ship carries a complement of a thousand men, six hundred of whom are sailors and four hundred men-at-arms, including archers, men with shields and [[crossbow]]s, who throw [[naphtha]]… These vessels are built in the towns of Zaytun ''(a.k.a ''Zaitun'', today's [[Quanzhou]]; 刺桐)'' and Sin-Kalan. The vessel has four decks and contains rooms, cabins, and saloons for merchants; a cabin has chambers and a lavatory, and can be locked by its occupants."'' ([[Ibn Battuta]]).

==The New Silk Road railway route==

{{Expand|date=October 2008}}

The last available link on the Silk Road was completed in 1990, when the railway systems of China and Kazakhstan connected in [[Alashankou Railway Station|Alataw Pass]] (Alashan Kou). Currently (2008), the line is used by direct passenger service from [[Urumqi]] in China's [[Xinjiang]] to [[Almaty]] and [[Astana]] in [[Kazakhstan]].[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8102422.stm].

==Commemoration==

Both [[Bishkek]] and [[Almaty]] now have a major east-west street named after the Silk Road ({{lang-ky|Жибек жолу}}, ''Jibek Jolu'' in Bishkek, and {{lang-kk|Жібек жолы}}, ''Jibek Joly'' in Almaty).

==Silk Route Museum==

{{Main|Silk Route Museum}}

Artifacts from the history of the Silk Route are displayed in the [[Silk Route Museum]] in [[Jiuquan]], [[People's Republic of China|China]].

==See also==

*[[Karakoram Highway]]

*[[Cities along the Silk Road]]

*[[Serica]]

*[[Incense Road]]

*[[History of silk]]

*[[Hippie trail]]

*[[Mount Imeon]]

*[[Godavaya]]

*[[Kamboja-Dvaravati Route]]

== Notes ==

{{reflist|2}}

== References ==

<div class="references-small">

* Baines, John and Málek, Jaromir (1984): ''Atlas of Ancient Egypt''. Oxford, Time Life Books.

* Boulnois, Luce. 2004. '''''Silk Road:''' Monks, Warriors & Merchants on the Silk Road''. Translated by Helen Loveday with additional material by Bradley Mayhew and Angela Sheng. Airphoto International. ISBN 962-217-720-4 hardback, ISBN 962-217-721-2 softback.

* [[János Harmatta|Harmatta, János]], ed., 1994. ''History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 BC to 250''. Paris, UNESCO Publishing.

* Herodotus (5th century BCE): ''Histories''. Translated with notes by George Rawlinson. 1996 edition. Ware, Hertfordshire, Wordsworth Editions Limited.

* Hopkirk, Peter: ''Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia''. The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1980, 1984. ISBN 0-87023-435-8

* Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. 1979. ''China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty''. E. J. Brill, Leiden.

* Huyghe, Edith and Huyghe, François-Bernard: "La route de la soie ou les empires du mirage", Petite bibliothèque Payot, 2006, ISBN 2-228-90073-7

* Juliano, Annettte, L. and Lerner, Judith A., et al. 2002. ''Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China: Gansu and Ningxia, 4th-7th Century''. Harry N. Abrams Inc., with The Asia Society. ISBN 0-8109-3478-7; ISBN 0-87848-089-7 softback.

* Klimkeit, Hans-Joach, im. 1988. ''Die Seidenstrasse: Handelsweg and Kulturbruecke zwischen Morgen- and Abendland.'' Koeln: DuMont Buchverlag.

* Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim. 1993. '''''Gnosis on the Silk Road''': Gnostic Texts from Central Asia''. Trans. & presented by Hans-Joachim Klimkeit. HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0-06-064586-5.

* Knight, E. F. 1893. ''Where Three Empires Meet: A Narrative of Recent Travel in: Kashmir, Western Tibet, Gilgit, and the adjoining countries''. Longmans, Green, and Co., London. Reprint: Ch'eng Wen Publishing Company, Taipei. 1971.

*Li, Rongxi (translator). 1995. ''A Biography of the Tripiṭaka Master of the Great Ci’en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty''. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. Berkeley, California. ISBN 1-886439-00-1

*Li, Rongxi (translator). 1995. ''The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions''. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. Berkeley, California. ISBN 1-886439-02-8

* [[Boris Anatol'evich Litvinsky|Litvinsky, B. A.]], ed., 1996. ''History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: 250 to 750''. Paris, UNESCO Publishing.

* Liu, Li, 2004, ''The Chinese Neolithic, Trajectories to Early States'', Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Press

* [[Xinru Liu|Liu, Xinru]], 2001. "Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan: Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies." ''[[Journal of World History]]'', Volume 12, No. 2, Fall 2001. University of Hawaii Press, pp.&nbsp;261–292. [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jwh/].

* McDonald, Angus. 1995. ''The Five Foot Road: In Search of a Vanished China''. HarperCollins''West'', San Francisco.

* Malkov, Artemy. 2007. The Silk Road: A mathematical model. ''History & Mathematics'', ed. by [[Peter Turchin]] et al. Moscow: KomKniga. ISBN 978-5-484-01002-8

* Mallory, J. P. and Mair, Victor H., 2000. ''The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West''. Thames & Hudson, London.

* ''Ming Pao''. "Hong Kong proposes Silk Road on the Sea as World Heritage", August 7, 2005, p. A2.

* Osborne, Milton, 1975. ''River Road to China: The Mekong River Expedition'', 1866–73. George Allen & Unwin Lt.

* Puri, B. N, 1987 ''Buddhism in Central Asia'', Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi. (2000 reprint).

* Ray, Himanshu Prabha, 2003. ''The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia''. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80455-8 (hardback); ISBN 0-521-01109-4 (paperback).

* [[Viktor Sarianidi|Sarianidi, Viktor]], 1985. ''The Golden Hoard of Bactria: From the Tillya-tepe Excavations in Northern Afghanistan''. Harry N. Abrams, New York.

* Schafer, Edward H. 1963. ''The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A study of T’ang Exotics''. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1st paperback edition: 1985. ISBN 0-520-05462-8.

* [[Marc Aurel Stein|Stein, Aurel M]]. 1907. ''Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan'', 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford.[http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/]

* Stein, Aurel M., 1912. ''Ruins of Desert Cathay: Personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China'', 2 vols. Reprint: Delhi. Low Price Publications. 1990.

* Stein, Aurel M., 1921. ''Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China'', 5 vols. London & Oxford. Clarendon Press. Reprint: Delhi. Motilal Banarsidass. 1980.[http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/]

* Stein Aurel M., 1928. ''Innermost Asia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su and Eastern Iran'', 5 vols. Clarendon Press. Reprint: New Delhi. Cosmo Publications. 1981.

* Stein Aurel M., 1932 ''On Ancient Central Asian Tracks: Brief Narrative of Three Expeditions in Innermost Asia and Northwestern China''. Reprinted with Introduction by Jeannette Mirsky. Book Faith India, Delhi. 1999.

* von Le Coq, Albert, 1928. Buried Treasures of Turkestan. Reprint with Introduction by Peter Hopkirk, Oxford University Press. 1985.

* Whitfield, Susan, 1999. ''Life Along the Silk Road.'' London: John Murray.

* Wimmel, Kenneth, 1996. ''The Alluring Target: In Search of the Secrets of Central Asia''. Trackless Sands Press, Palo Alto, CA. ISBN 1-879434-48-2

* Yan, Chen, 1986. "Earliest Silk Route: The Southwest Route." Chen Yan. ''China Reconstructs'', Vol. XXXV, No. 10. Oct. 1986, pp.&nbsp;59–62.

* {{cite book|first=Sir Henry |last=Yule (translator and editor)|publisher=Printed for the Hakluyt society |year=1866

|title=Cathay and the way thither: being a collection of medieval notices of China. Issue 37 of Works issued by the Hakluyt Society

|url= http://books.google.com/books?id=KzEMAAAAIAAJ}}

</div>

==Further reading==

* Bulliet, Richard W. 1975. ''The Camel and the Wheel''. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-09130-2.

* Choisnel, Emmanuel : ''Les Parthes et la route de la soie'' ; Paris [u.a.], L' Harmattan [u.a.], 2005, ISBN 2-7475-7037-1

*{{cite journal |last= Christian |first= David |year= 2000 |month= |title=Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History |journal= [[Journal of World History]] |volume= 2.1 |issue= Spring |page= 1 |publisher= [[University of Hawaii Press]]}}

* de la Vaissière, E., Sogdian Traders. A History, Leiden, Brill, 2005, Hardback ISBN 90-04-14252-5 [http://www.brill.nl], French version ISBN 2-85757-064-3 on [http://www.deboccard.com]

* de la Vaissière, E., Trombert, E., Les Sogdiens en Chine, Paris, EFEO, 2005 ISBN 2-85539-653-0 [http://www.efeo.fr/publications/vdp.shtml]

* Elisseeff, Vadime. Editor. 1998. '''''The Silk Roads:''' Highways of Culture and Commerce''. UNESCO Publishing. Paris. Reprint: 2000. ISBN 92-3-103652-1 softback; ISBN 1-57181-221-0; ISBN 1-57181-222-9 softback.

* Foltz, Richard C. 1999. ''Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century.'' New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-21408-1.

*Hill, John E. (2009) ''Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE''. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.

* Hill, John E. 2004. ''The Peoples of the West from the Weilüe'' 魏略 ''by Yu Huan'' 魚豢'': A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265.'' Draft annotated English translation. [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html]

* [[Peter Hopkirk|Hopkirk, Peter]]: ''The Great Game: the Struggle for Empire in Central Asia''; Kodansha International, New York, 1990, 1992.

* Il Milione by Marco Polo

* Kuzmina, E. E. ''The Prehistory of the Silk Road''. (2008) Edited by Victor H. Mair. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 978-0-8122-4041-2.

* [[Xinru Liu|Liu, Xinru]], and Shaffer, Lynda Norene. 2007. ''Connections Across Eurasia: Transportation, Communication, and Cultural Exchange on the Silk Roads''. McGraw Hill, New York. ISBN 978-0-07-284351-4.

* Miller, Roy Andrew (1959): ''Accounts of Western Nations in the History of the Northern Chou Dynasty''. University of California Press.

* Hallikainen, Saana : ''Connections from Europe to Asia and how the trading was affected by the cultural exchange'' (2002)

* Thubron, C., ''The Silk Road to China'' (Hamlyn, 1989)

==External links==

{{commons|Silk Road|Silk Road}}

* [http://www.cnto.org/silkroad.asp China National Tourist Office]

* [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/maps/maps.html Silk Road Atlas (University of Washington)]

* [http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html The history of the Silk Road by Oliver Wild]

* [http://www.ciolek.com/owtrad.html Old World Traditional Trade Routes Project]

* [http://www.studyrussian.com/seidenstrasse/silkroad/index.htm Travel report incl. photos along the Silk Road]

* [http://www.silk-road.com/ Silkroad Foundation]

* [http://ameblo.jp/usyukuro/entry-10293534401.html Kyzyl To Samarkand]

* [http://www.silkroadproject.org/ Silk Road Project]

* [http://www.travelthesilkroad.org/ Silk Road Society]

* [http://montgomery.cas.muohio.edu/silkroad Miami University Silk Road Project]

* [http://www.ourorient.com/articles/relations/hanandrome.htm The Great Handclasp -- The Han Empire and the Roman Empire]

* [http://wiki.wsu.edu/wsuwiki/Silk_Road Silk Road]

* [http://www.fofweb.com/Electronic_Images/Maps/HMOF8-08-c.pdf Silk Road in Greco Roman times (map)]

* [http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/silkroad/main.html The Silk Road: Trade, travel, war and faith] at the [[British Library]]

*[http://www.scribd.com/doc/16291238/Ruta-de-La-Seda-3-Dunhuang-J93 Images and travelling impressions along the Silk Road - Dunhuang]

*[http://www.scribd.com/doc/16564279/Ruta-de-La-Seda-4-Urumqi-J17 Images and travelling impressions along the Silk Road - Urumqi]

*[http://www.slideshare.net/Wkboonec/ruta-de-la-seda-5-turpan Images and travelling impressions along the Silk Road - Turpan]

*[http://www.slideshare.net/Wkboonec/ruta-de-la-seda-6-kashgar-j13-2690289 Images and travelling impressions along the Silk Road - Kashgar]

*[http://www.slideshare.net/Wkboonec/ruta-de-la-seda-7-khiva-ago14 Images and travelling impressions along the Silk Road - Khiva]

*[http://www.slideshare.net/Wkboonec/ruta-de-la-seda-8-bujar-sep-11 Images and travelling impressions along the Silk Road - Bukhara]

*[http://www.slideshare.net/Wkboonec/ruta-de-la-seda-9-camino-a-las-yurtas-baos-y-paisajes-carreteros Images and travelling impressions along the Silk Road - The road from Bukhara to Samarkand]

*[http://www.slideshare.net/Wkboonec/ruta-de-la-seda-10-samarkanda-rev-1 Images and travelling impressions along the Silk Road - Samarkand]

*[http://idp.bl.uk/ International Dunhuang Project]

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[[cs:Hedvábná stezka]]

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[[eu:Zetaren Bidea]]

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[[fr:Route de la soie]]

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[[hak:Sṳ̂-chhù-chṳ̂-lu]]

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[[it:Via della seta]]

[[he:דרך המשי]]

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[[kk:Жібек Жолы]]

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[[ku:Riya Hevrîşimê]]

[[la:Via Sericaria]]

[[lv:Zīda ceļš]]

[[lb:Seidestrooss]]

[[lt:Šilko kelias]]

[[hu:Selyemút]]

[[ms:Laluan Sutera]]

[[mn:Торгоны зам]]

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[[nl:Zijderoute]]

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