Infrastructure
Silk Road
Also Known As Silk Routes
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A network of overland and maritime trade routes connecting East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean world, active from roughly the second century BCE into the fifteenth century CE. Not a single road but a shifting web of caravan tracks and sea lanes, it carried silk, spices, precious metals and ideas, including the spread of Buddhism, gunpowder and paper making technology, alongside goods.
Facts
Disputed
Completion YearThe Silk Road was a network of routes that grew over centuries rather than a single built work with one completion date. One common marker historians use is the Han dynasty's westward expansion into Central Asia around 114 BCE, though overland trade contacts existed earlier and no single completion date is agreed. SignificanceConnected East Asia to the Mediterranean for over a millennium, carrying goods, technology and ideas alongside trade. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Part Of
The Silk Road combined overland routes with maritime legs; the overland network is the dominant popular sense of the term and is filed here.
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