| Silk Road | |
 | |
| Itinerary type | Automotive |
|---|---|
| Length | 8,000 km |
There Silk Road (丝绸之路 sī chóu zhī there), it is not a single road, but a network of historic trade routes through theAsia, from China toEurope. A poem calls it "The Golden Road to Samarkand".
Introduction
In 2014, theWorld Heritage added the "Silk Roads: the road links of the Chang'an-Tianshan corridor"to their World Heritage list. It is a stretch of 5000 km from Chang'an (now called Xi'an) in central China to the Tianshan mountain range along the border between China and Central Asia. The western end is the region once known as Zhetysu, now divided between the Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyzstan; its main cities are Almaty is Bishkek. This was only the first of several Silk Road routes; Many more have been planned, but each nation can only nominate one candidate per year, so it will take some time to complete the entire list of streets.
Many sites along the historic land routes are already on the UNESCO list. At the two extremes, Xi'an and Istanbul they are both listed. Furthermore Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, Tabriz, Damascus and others. Many of the major ports on the sea routes are also listed.
The route, which stretched for about 8,000 km, was made up of land, sea and river routes along which trade between the Chinese and Roman empires took place in ancient times. The caravan routes crossed Central Asia and the Middle East, connecting Xi'an, in China, to Asia Minor and the Mediterranean through the Middle East and the Near East. The branches then extended east to the Korea and al Japan and, to the south, toIndia.
Background
The first routes with the east
Caravans have traveled along the Silk Road for over 2,000 years; Chinese silk reached Rome before the end of the Roman Republic.
Trading on parts of the route is much older; there was trade between the Indus Valley Civilization and the Ancient Mesopotamia before 2000 BC (city like Mohenjo-daro in Sindh is Nineveh in Iraq), the jade of Khotan in what is now it Xinjiang it was reaching central China around 1500 BC. and the Persian Royal Road connected to the Mediterranean port of Sardis and to the ports of Persian Gulf in the 5th century BC Around that time there was extensive trade throughout the Persian Empire, which was centered in present-day Iran and in those days comprised much of the Caucasus, Central Asia and what is now there Turkey.
Around 300 BC, Alexander the Great conquered by Greece toEgypt, where he founded Alexandria, which later became a large trading city, the main depot of goods from the maritime silk road leading to the Mediterranean. Then he turned east and conquered the Persian empire, which then included much of theCentral Asia, and later occupied a good part of the Pakistan and some parts of northern India. His empire collapsed after his death, but the trade continued. He founded what is now the city of Xuçand in Tajikistan and took Samarkand; both cities later became trade centers of the Silk Road. In the 2nd century BC the envoys of Alexander's successors and the Chinese court reached Kashgar; this seems to have been the first contact between China and the Europeans.
The birth of the silk road
The first Silk Road was founded in the 2nd century BC, when Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty defeated the Xiongnu and cemented Chinese control over parts of Central Asia. With the Chinese army able to guard the route against nomadic bandits, the route became safe enough for traders to make the journey, allowing trade between China and Central Asia to flourish. Although it later declined when China went to war and anarchy arose with the fall of the Han dynasty, it would be re-established and expanded under the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty. However, the path gradually diminished following the fall of the Tang dynasty, and was eventually closed during the 15th century, when the ruling Ming dynasty decided to adopt a policy of isolation.
From that time until Russian expansion into Central Asia in the nineteenth century, there was usually a powerful empire at the center of the Silk Road. The region was conquered three times: Alexander the Great, the Arabs in the 7th century AD. and the Mongols in the thirteenth. At other times it was ruled by various incarnations of the Persian Empire or other Central Asian empires, and sometimes these empires included various adjacent regions. Whichever kingdom had power, trade continued despite everything.
Development
While Genghis Khan is popularly known as a destructive predator who raped and plundered along its way through theEurasia, the Mongol empire had a beneficial effect on trade; although they have left few major cities, they have created a lasting mark in both China and Central Asia. At the time of the Grand Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan, the Empire covered nearly the entire length of the Silk Road from today's Hungary is Turkey to China and Korea. Within the Empire, tariffs were reduced, roads improved, bandits ruthlessly eliminated, and commerce and communication encouraged. Europeans, including Marco Polo, they visited the Mongolian capital Karakorum and China, he has starting his journey home with a ship on the maritime silk road from Quanzhou to Iran. Traveling between Europe and China was faster and safer than it was in later centuries. This trade gradually declined during the Black Plague - which was thought to have spread in part on the trade routes of the Silk Road - and the slow decay of the Empire, although the states ruled by Genghis descendants somehow kept the road open even later.
A Mongolian descendant he was Tamerlane who ruled much of Central Asia in the 14th century; his palace of Samarkand, the Registan, is now a World Heritage Site and one of the Silk Road's most popular attractions. He was a conqueror who dreamed of rebuilding the great empire of Genghis. Tamerlane invaded theIndia, the Syria, L'Anatolia and the Caucasus and took different cities like Delhi, Damascus is Moscow; he died while on his way to attack China. His descendants created the Mughal empire in what is now India and the Pakistan.
On this route, much more than just silk has been traded. Trade was limited to relatively expensive goods - transporting something like rice or timber over long distances was not cheap with medieval transport. Porcelain, glass work, fabrics other than silk, other handicrafts, gems and furs were traded. So it was with luxury foods, especially spices. Coffee, originally from Ethiopia, and tea, originally from China, first reached the rest of the world via these routes. In medieval London or Paris, pepper cost more than its weight in gold.
Goods, ideas and cultures along the silk road
Carpets were historically an important commercial item and even today the villages along this road produce many fine examples; they are definitely an important export commodity and a nice thing to take home as a souvenir. If bargained, they are much cheaper here than in other places. There is a phenomenal range available, with each region and sometimes each village producing their own styles. The finest woven rugs are produced in the large weaving centers of Iran and Turkey, but areas such as the Caucasus, the Turkmenistan, L'Afghanistan and the Baluchistan they are equally famous. There is a production of carpets almost everywhere, from China in the east to Romania and inNorthern Africa in the west, and it is an important industry both in India and in Pakistan.
Ideas have also traveled down this path. Both theIslam that the Buddhism they reached China on this route and some areas of the Silk Road have important relics of those religions. Important Buddhist sites include the huge statues of Bamian, Afghanistan (now destroyed), the ancient city of Taxila in Pakistan, the large amount of manuscripts found a Gilgit, in northern Pakistan, and the Dunhuang caves in Xinjiang. One of China's most famous tales is the epic Journey to the West, which speaks of a monk and his fantastic companions who traveled to India via Xinjiang to bring back Buddhist scriptures. Mosques and other Islamic architecture are found throughout Central Asia, much of South Asia, and the western provinces of China. There are also some in the Eastern China, perhaps especially the old mosques in the Silk Road ports, Guangzhou is Quanzhou.
Other religions also spread in this way; The Nestorian Christianity (centered in Persia) sent missionaries to Korea, and Xi'an has a stele commemorating their arrival in the 7th century. There were Zoroastrians a Quanzhou in 1000 AD and the neighbor Jinjiang has the last surviving Manichaean temple in the world. The first Catholic missionaries reached China by sea in the 14th century, landing in Quanzhou. A Jewish community will also settle a Kaifeng by the 10th century.
Various ideas from the East - notably Chinese inventions such as gunpowder, window panes and the use of coal as fuel - also reached Islamic countries and then Europe via the Silk Road. Chess reached the West from Persia ("checkmate" comes from the term Shah Mat, from the Persian "king dies"), although it was probably invented in India. The game would also be ported to East Asia, where it would evolve into national variants unique to China, Korea and Japan.
From the Middle Ages to the present time
At the western end of the Silk Road were the city-states ofItaly, where the accumulation of wealth and knowledge led to the Italian Renaissance. Towards the end of the 15th century, Vasco da Gama founded the Cape Route in Africa, which came to replace the land routes between Europe and Asia.
Later Magellan he found an alternate route, sailing south of the South America. Several European powers founded colonies along the old maritime silk road, the British in many places, the Portugal in Africa, Gao and Macau and the Dutch in what is now theIndonesia, including the incredibly precious Spice Islands. The Spaniards established an important alternative route with extensive trade between their colonies, mainly on galleons from Acapulco to Manila and in Asia. Still later the Suez canals and Panama they opened new routes; the steamers that used the Suez Canal since its opening in 1869 soon replaced the large sailing tea cutters, which used to travel from China to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope, and more modern boats still use that route today. The old region of the maritime Silk Road, the Pearl River Delta, still carries out intense trade, mostly by sea.
In the 21st century, China and its neighbors are investing in land infrastructure, particularly railways, to create a renaissance for land transport between Europe and Asia. Several European cities now see daily or weekly freight trains from China. In Thailand, there has been talk of building a maritime channel across the Kra Isthmus in southern Thailand with funding from China, allowing ships traveling between China and Europe or India to bypass Singapore and save several days of time and millions of dollars of fuel in the process, even as these have been repeatedly held back by concerns about Muslim Malaysian ethnic separatists near the border with the Malaysia.
How to get
Preparations
This is not an easy trip especially for a novice traveler. Consult a travel medicine specialist about vaccinations and medicines to take with you. See also i Tips for traveling to developing countries.
If you are doing the full course, bring some phrasebooks for at least the Chinese, the Russian and the making.
Note that parts of this route can be difficult or impassable in winter, and the various borders can sometimes be closed for political reasons. For most countries, travelers will need visas obtained in advance. It may be necessary to plan ahead as some of the smaller nations have few embassies. For example, the Turkemistan does not have an embassy in Ottawa, so a Canadian may need to apply at the embassy at Washington, London, Beijing or Moscow to obtain a visa. Check the country lists for details.
Most anyone traveling on this route will at least want to look at some rugs, perhaps to buy some. Even on a tight budget, you might want to grab some of the more common smaller items like woven handbags or purses and carpet-decorated boots. Reading a book or two about carpets before you leave is a great idea; Among the most useful writers is a Californian doctor and carpet collector named Murray Eiland.
Some parts of the route are probably less safe than they were a few centuries ago. Before you leave, find out about the security situation and carefully consider whether some countries or regions within should not be completely excluded. A starting point is our section on Security.
Where to sleep
The traditional inns of the region are called caravanserai. They are built around a courtyard and had stables for horses and camels. Most of them were found in cities, but some were also found in rural areas, some were fortified against local looters.
There are still some caravanserai; those traveling on the road should stop at least once.
Stages
Silk Road: full screen map.Many travelers today follow all or part of this ancient route by train, bus or private car. Some Wikivoyage itineraries partly follow the Silk Road.
You could start a journey along the Silk Road from anywhere in Europe or China, but the obvious starting points are the two ends of the historic road: Chang'an, which is now called Xi'an, and Constantinople, now Istanbul.
From both ends, the first part of the route can be done by train; China has a good rail system that goes to Kashgar it's at Urumqi where there are links with Almaty. From Russia, there is good train service to many places in Central Asia. The Trans-Asia Express runs from Istanbul to Tehran. From Tehran there are trains eastward to Mashad and from there north to Turkmenistan, and also south-east to Zahedan and then Quetta in Pakistan. Going east from Quetta, the Pakistani rail system is good enough, but the train Zahedan-Quetta it only travels twice a month and, in mid-2014, the area around Quetta is considered quite dangerous.
To explore only the central part of the Central Asia route, it would be easier to fly to a city in that area with good air links - Tashkent, Almaty or even Urumqi. You could also enter the area on several railway lines that branch off from Trans-Siberian, although the main line is north of the main Silk Road routes.
From Xi'an to Dunhuang (Hexi corridor)
The main route of the caravans from China to the West. Starting in the capital Chang'an, which we know today as the great city of 1 Xi'an head west past the Baoji Gorges along the Corn Flake Mountain of 2 Tianshui until 3 Lanzhou on the banks of the Yellow River. Northwest along the Hexi Corridor to the Han dynasty garrison towns of 4 Wuwei, 5 Zhangye, 6 Jiuquan the western terminus of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, shown as one dashed blue line on the map.
TO 7 Dunhuang, a very important Buddhist center with the famous caves of Mogao, the "burning lighthouse" of Chinese civilization in the western regions. The Jade Gate is just outside Dunhuang and bounded the Chinese kingdom from the semi-independent cities of the Tarim Basin. There were related paths within China; the green links on the map show links from Xi'an north to 8 Beijing and east to 9 Suzhou is 10 Hangzhou.
Around the desert (Tarim Basin)
Beyond Dunhuang, the main road was divided to go around the Taklimakan desert.
North road at the foot of the Tien Shan, or the "heavenly mountains": Dunhuang, 11 Hami, 12 Turfan, 13 Korla, 14 Kashgar.
Southern Road in the foothills of Tibet also called the jade path why Khotan is famous for jade: Dunhuang, 15 Cherchen (or Qarqan), 16 Hotan, 17 Yarkand, Kashgar. Today, Kashgar is the westernmost city in China; at other times it was the capital of an independent kingdom, part of the Mongol Empire or part of various Central Asian empires.
The paths mentioned above run along the edges of the desert; there are several alternative routes that plan to start on one of the points above, including the third branch that from Turfan crossed the Tian Shan mountains in the direction of 18 Almaty, 19 Taraz (today Kazakhstan). All these paths then gathered in the ancient Sogdiana and from there they continued through what they are today Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan is Iran until Baghdad and then (largely exploiting the Euphrates) to the Mediterranean.
Central Asia (Transoxiana)
After Kashgar, the main road goes northwest passing the 20 Torugart Pass or the 21 Erkeshtam of Irkeshtam it passes in Central Asia along the Ferghana valley, through 22 Fergana, 23 Kokand is 24 Xuçand and then continue on towards 25 Samarkand is 26 Bukhara, at this point it heads southwest through the Turkmenistan, Street 27 Merv in order to reach theIran, once called Persia. Or you would go north towards the Black Sea via 28 Urgench and then Astrakhan.
Middle East
From Iran, the route goes west to 29 Mashad through 30 Nishapur, 31 Hecatomp it, 32 Semnan is 33 Tehran. Beyond Tehran, the route splits between the southern route through the Mesopotamia and the northern route through theAnatolia.
The southern route passes by: 34 Hamadan (Ecbatana), 35 Baghdad (Seleucia / Ctesiphon), 36 Palmira, 37 Damascus and all the south-east of the Mediterranean as 38 Shot is 39 Alexandria of Egypt.
The Northern Route passes by: 40 Tabriz, 41 Constantinople and the north-eastern Mediterranean as well as the Black Sea coast with: 42 Antioch, 43 Bursa (Cius), 44 Trebizond, 45 Gaziantep (Doliche). The routes ended in Europe in the city like 46 Rome is 47 Venice mainly.
Alternative routes
Alternative routes to those already described were also possible, for example: further north, from 48 Urumqi through the Dzungarian gate to Almaty passing through 49 Astrakhan and up to Russia and in Caucasus. Part of this route was proposed by the Chinese government as the first Silk Road candidate on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
There were also other large cities of the Persian Empire that fell into the alternative routes such as: 50 Herat, 51 Isfahan, 52 Shiraz. Passing north from Iran to the Caucasus and crossing the Caspian Sea with a merchant ship, usually from 53 Türkmenbaşy to 54 Baku. Or crossing the Black Sea by boat, often from 55 Batumi, 56 Poti or 57 Trabzon until 58 Odessa, 59 Sevastopol, 60 Varna or Istanbul.
Overall, the "Silk Road" has never been a single road, more a network of roads and caravan paths connecting dozens of cities.
Related roads
Various routes connected China to the Indian subcontinent: for example from the Xinjiang to the Pakistan and theIndia through what is now there Karakorum road or via Ladakh. For centuries Taxila it was the main terminus of the Indian route of these routes.
In Afghanistan on the way Bactrian from locations further west along the road, probably in what is now the Pakistan central through the Khyber pass to the Baluchistan and al Sindh through the Bolan Pass. A "caravan of tea and horses" on a route much further south, from Chengdu through the Yunnan and parts of Tibet up to Burma and toNorthern India.
Further west, the Route of the Incense brought incense, myrrh and other goods fromOman and give it Yemen, by land through theSaudi Arabia is Israel, towards the Mediterranean countries.
Sea routes
The routes of the Silk Road did not go only by land roads because there was also a large amount of traffic by sea.
In China, the main ports for these routes were Guangzhou is Quanzhou. Marco Polo sailed from Quanzhou and described it as the busiest and fabulously rich port on Earth.
Further west, the large ports included 61 Rangoon is 62 Chittagong in the Bay of Bengal, 63 Kochi is 64 Calicut on the coast ofSouthern India, 65 Khambhat in northern India, 66 Karachi in Pakistan, 67 Basra in Iraq, 68 Muscat in Oman is 69 Aden in Yemen. Alexandria of Egypt it was the gateway of these routes to the Mediterranean; Polo considered it the second busiest port in the world.
Some words still in use today come from the ports on this route linked to which some objects that reached Europe for the first time: "satin" from Zaiton (the Arabic name of Quanzhou). Bactrian camels (with two humps unlike Arab camels which have only one) take their name from the region of the same name.
Grapes were introduced in the Mediterranean region from Middle East and Muscat grapes were among the first to be cultivated in ancient Greece. Some experts suggest that these are seeds from which all modern grapes are derived, and some think that the name comes from the city of Muscat, although there is no unanimous consensus on this. Moscato grapes are fermented to produce a sweet wine called precisely Moscato.
Not all history is known and historians disagree on parts of it, but it is clear that this trade is quite ancient and was quite extensive. Trade along the Indian Ocean coast - between the Indus Valley civilization in what is now Sindh and ancient Mesopotamia in what is now Iraq - was established in 2000 BC. Greek records show that the routes between the Red Sea, East Africa and what is now the west coast of India were well established for several centuries BC. Ptolemy of Alexandria created maps of land and sea routes in China in the 2nd century AD; the map above is based precisely on those of Ptolemy. Chinese traders were sailing to India through theIndonesia by the third century AD, and probably earlier.
During the reign of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty, Chinese-Muslim Admiral Zheng He (also known as Cheng Ho) would have sailed on routes that would take him to Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and even to Mogadishu in East Africa. His contact with the Malacca Sultanate in what is now the Malaysia led to the first wave of Chinese immigration to the area, where many married local Malaysians to form the Peranakan community, whose culture and cuisine survive to this day.
The first Muslim missionaries reached China by sea in the 7th century, and several Chinese cities had mosques built during the Tang dynasty, ie before 907. Around 1000, Quanzhou had a sizeable community of Arabs and Persians and the Grand Mosque present there was not the first to be built in 1009. Until the emperor closed all international trade by sea in the 1420s, there was regular trade between China and ports. as far west as Aden both on Chinese ships and on other ships. Even after closing, the emperor allowed his greatest navigator, Admiral Zheng He, to sail to Jeddah for his pilgrimage Hajj to Mecca.
In general, Asians traded extensively on these routes centuries before Europeans arrived. When Vasco da Gama (en route to become the first European to reach India by sea) reached East Africa via the Cape route in 1498, he found Chinese goods such as blue and white ceramics already established on the market. This showed how insignificant medieval Europe was on the world stage and while the Americas did not yet have a commercial role (because they were newly discovered) Asia produced most of the world's wealth and held most of the trade.
Later, the Europeans had enormous influence in the region. A significant change was the colonization: the Russia in Central Asia, the Great Britain in India, the Malaysia, the Burma is Hong Kong, the Portugal to Goa is Macau, the France in Indochina, the Dutch in Indonesia but first the Spaniards and then the Americans in Philippines. There were also major changes in trade routes; some of the most important were the huge imports of silver from Mexico Spanish a Manila and from there to East Asia, and the vast three-pronged trade involving tea shearers mainly from China to Great Britain and opium mainly from Bengal British to China.
Safety
Historically, many people in these regions have been nomadic herders, some still are, and even in cities tribal loyalty can become strong, which implies:
- an incredible tradition of hospitality
- suspicion of strangers, even from neighboring tribes. (Foreigners, however, are often exempt from it.)
- considerable hostility towards Western and Russian influences
- many of them are heavily armed
The entire area along the land route, with the exception of some parts of China, is Muslim, which implies:
- a tradition of Muslim hospitality and wonderful treatment of visitors
- a certain conservatism, especially regarding women's clothing
- the risk for foreigners who do not understand when Islam is offended
In these areas, politics becomes very complicated, with tribal, ethnic and religious problems adding to the overall complexity. Furthermore, the collapse of the Soviet Union left some local governments in a chaotic state from which they have not fully recovered. The Turkmenistan, for example, is as authoritarian as the North Korea.
Since early 2019, there has been active warfare for several years in various areas along the way - Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and several Caucasian areas along with the Chechnya much better known and it Yemen on the Maritime Silk Road - as well as potential conflicts in many other countries. Drone strikes by the US military are frequent in Yemen and the Pakistan North Western. Avoid these areas, or check out the security and war zones.
Like other trade routes, there is a long tradition of banditry along the Silk Road. This has shrunk dramatically over the past two centuries, but there could be a risk of new outbreaks when an area becomes chaotic. There are also complications associated with drug trafficking; in recent decades Afghanistan has become a major source of opium (the raw material for the production of morphine and heroin); much of it is smuggled north through neighboring countries, then along the ancient routes of the Silk Road to the Russia and Europe. Piracy is present in the Gulf of Aden is in the Red Sea southern. If you take the Maritime Silk Road, be cautious.
That said, with a little common sense and willingness to get around problem places and a lot of flexibility, the risks can get pretty moderate.
Check the prescriptions for each country and city. The roads are poor in many areas and some are impassable in winter or in the monsoon season. Several mountainous and desert areas can be very dangerous if proper precautions are not taken. While most of the locals are friendly, curious and helpful, the traveler needs to understand local customs and must be careful not to offend.
