Ancient Silk Route

During the 6-14th century, there were thousands of large and small routes that crossed Asian Continent leading to the West. Caravans followed these routes and each was filled with exotic clothes, eastern goods and spices. These routes raised the Great Silk Road. Along Great Silk Road towns, cities and caravanserai were created. Hence the various centers for national crafts, art schools, madrasahs, palaces and mausoleums. Traders, missionaries and refuges were travelling together bringing along new religions, customs, products like glass, porcelain, soap and gunpowder and most important a different culture. They were the ones who created herbariums, collected methods of curing diseases and studied the stars. In many ways, for more than thousands of years Great Silk Road linked many countries and its people by means of peaceful activities such as trade, culture and spiritual exchanges that is unique to all mankind. The Great Silk Road routes started from a town called Lanchjou and stretched to cities of Tor and Sodom, both Mediterranean ports which acted as a junction between the East and West. This old East-West trading trail transplanted culture, customs and religious from one center to the next and vice-versa. Again, the Great Silk Road will be re-opened to tourists, magnificent architectural monuments, unique works of calligraphy, silks, rugs and pottery produced by ancient craftsmen in our fascinating tours.

The ancient Silk Road not only points to the past but also leads to the future of the places through which it laces. Cui Jia reports.

Colored murals at an ancient archaeological site in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, record a Chinese princess traveling across a river on a boat to meet—and perhaps marry—the local ruler. In another scene, Chinese ambassadors present the king with rolls of silk.

Traces of the ancient Silk Road can be found in many modern cities along the route.

And intangible remnants of the trade route's legacy remain in the collective memory of those who live in the regions.

Bustling bazaars became cultural-exchange centers.

Merchants brought new ideas and cuisines as they traveled and picked up locals' habits and traditions along the way.

As one bartender in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent puts it: "The Silk Roads make you have me and me have you."

The maze-like Grand Bazaar (Kapali Carsi) in Istanbul, Turkey, was the merchants' final destination of the ancient Silk Road on land. Goods were shipped from there to Europe by sea.