The Silk Road

Long ago, there were no planes or trucks.

Traders walked with camels and horses for a long, long way. They crossed deserts and mountains. They carried silk and spices to sell. These paths are called the Silk Road.

The Silk Road was not a single road. It was a network of trade routes, used for more than 1,500 years, that linked China with Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Altogether it stretched about 6,400 kilometers, across some of the hardest land on Earth, including the Gobi Desert and the Pamir Mountains.

The name "silk road" came much later, in 1877, from a German geographer, Ferdinand von Richthofen. It is named after silk, the soft, shiny cloth that Chinese merchants sold to buyers far to the west. Some historians prefer to say "Silk Routes," because traders took so many different paths.

The Silk Road was a network of overland routes rather than one road. National Geographic dates its use from about 130 BCE, when the Han dynasty opened trade with the west, to 1453 CE, when, in National Geographic's words, the Ottoman Empire closed off trade with the West; Silk Road Seattle, a University of Washington project, treats the missions Emperor Wu Di (141 to 87 BCE) sent into Inner Asia as its beginning. The routes ran about 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Chang'an, modern Xi'an, past the Taklamakan Desert and over the Pamirs to the Levant and Anatolia, with goods shipped on across the Mediterranean.

The term was coined in 1877 by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen. Some historians prefer "Silk Routes," and UNESCO says "Silk Roads," because traders took many paths. The name also serves as a metaphor for the exchange of goods and ideas between cultures.

Traders traveled together in a long line called a caravan.

Camels carried the heavy bags. At night, travelers stopped at big inns. The inns had a big yard where the camels could rest.

Traveling the Silk Road was hard. The roads were often in poor condition, and nobody looked after them all. So traders traveled together in groups called caravans, with camels or other pack animals carrying the loads.

Along the way grew large inns called caravanserais. A caravanserai had strong walls, one big gateway tall enough for loaded camels, and an open courtyard with a well, surrounded by storerooms. Few people ever traveled the whole route. Instead, goods were traded from one merchant to the next, city by city.

With no single government maintaining the routes, the roads were typically in poor condition and robbers were common, so merchants joined caravans of camels or other pack animals. Britannica describes the caravansary (caravanserai) as a walled, four-sided building, usually outside a town, with a single heavy gateway wide enough for loaded camels. Its paved central courtyard, open to the sky, had a well and could hold 300 or 400 crouching camels or mules; merchandise was stored on the ground floor and travelers slept upstairs.

Because few people traveled the entire route, goods moved in stages through middlemen and trading posts. In this way Chinese silk reached buyers as far away as the Roman Empire.

Today, you can still visit the Silk Road cities.

Old buildings and caves with paintings are still there. People take care of them so everyone can see them.

Many Silk Road places are now protected World Heritage Sites. In 2014 UNESCO listed a 5,000-kilometer stretch of the routes, from China into Central Asia, shared by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The old centers of Samarkand and Bukhara, the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang, the historic areas of Istanbul and the city of Venice are on the list too.

Part of the old route is still a road: a paved highway now links Pakistan with western China. And UNESCO runs a Silk Roads Programme to help people learn how cultures along the routes shaped one another.

In 2014 UNESCO inscribed "Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor," a 5,000 km section shared by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with 33 components: capitals and palaces, trading settlements, Buddhist cave temples, paths, posthouses, passes, beacon towers, parts of the Great Wall, forts and tombs. It took shape between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE and stayed in use until the 16th century.

Other listed places include the Mogao Caves (1987), whose 492 cells and cave sanctuaries hold 1,000 years of Buddhist art, Bukhara (1993), Samarkand (2001), Istanbul (1985) and Venice (1987). A paved highway between Pakistan and Xinjiang follows part of the old route, and UNESCO's Silk Roads Programme studies the routes as a history of dialogue between cultures.