The Silk Route
For centuries, merchants and others journeyed to and from China and the Middle East on ancient routes through some of the most testing landscapes in the world. These ‘highways’ – stretching some 4,000 miles – collectively came to be called the ‘Silk Route’.
This website takes you along the Silk Route in terms of both geography and time – from its beginning in Dunhuang in China to its end in the Middle East (with exotic stopovers along the way), and from the trade in Afghani rock salt and lapis lazuli 6,000 years ago to the adventures of Marco Polo in the 13th century.