Asian Geographic – Special Edition 2017-2018

above A Muslim family

outside the tomb of Kusam

ibn Abbas, a cousin of the

Prophet Muhammad

We use the term “Silk Road” without thinking too

much about it. Our geography of its exact route is often

hazy, but people typically remember that it was the

trading route by which silk first travelled from China

to Europe. There is some truth in this, but that’s just a

fragment of a far larger, more important picture.

The term Seidenstraße (Silk Road) was first coined

by a German geographer, Ferdinand von Richthofen,

in the late 19th century. It may not have been very

accurate, but it stuck.

There was never just one road but rather a network

of interconnected land routes criss-crossing North

Africa and the Mediterranean, the Middle East and

A caravan of camels crossing

the desert is the romanticised

epitome of the Silk Road.

Where were they going? What

were they carrying? Why were

they even journeying at all?

3200 bc

Domestication of the

horse

3000 bc

First production of

silk in China

2500 bc

Domestication of the

camel

550 bc

Establishment of the

Achaemenid Empire

in Persia

509 bc

Establishment of the

Roman Republic

silk road timeline