The Silk Road wasn't a single road but a network of trade routes connecting East and West for over 1,500 years. Named for China's most prized export, it carried far more than silk—spices, glass, horses, paper, and ideas all flowed along its paths.
The routes stretched from Chang'an (modern Xi'an) through Central Asia to the Mediterranean. Goods rarely traveled the entire distance with one merchant. Instead, they passed through hands at trading posts like Samarkand, Bukhara, and Baghdad.
The Silk Road wasn't just commercial—it was humanity's first information superhighway. Buddhism spread from India to China along its paths. Islam reached Central Asia and western China. Technologies like papermaking, printing, and gunpowder diffused from East to West.