What is the silk road?
The Silk Roads
The silk road—more appropriately “roads”—was a network of ancient trade routes that during its heyday spanned thousands of miles from China, where silk production was first discovered and the process kept secret for centuries, to Rome, whose nobility paid extremely high prices for the exotic fabric. The caravans intentionally passed through difficult terrain—deserts and mountains—avoiding the more northerly routes through the steppes that offered easier passage but were plagued with marauding tribes. Towns and cities sprung up in the oases along the way, providing services to the caravans. Very few people would have traveled the entire route start to finish; instead caravans would run back and forth along portions of the route that they knew well, with goods changing hands repeatedly before reaching their ultimate destinations. As a result, the silk road cities accumulated considerable wealth. (In fact, Christopher Columbus' later voyage was specifically intended to discover a sea route to China that would circumvent the numerous middle-men along what had then become the “spice route.”)
Not only did goods trade along the silk roads, but also culture. Two of the world's great religions—Buddhism and Islam—were spread along the silk road. Art, architecture and music also traveled this route, the different schools and forms combining to create enriched forms of expression. Technical and financial innovations, including the concept of “zero” and the idea of money, also made their way along the silk roads, being adopted by the various cultures with whom they made contact. The combination of all these factors make the ancient silk road cities fascinating places to visit; today the route is literally littered with UNESCO World Heritage sites.