Silk Road
trade routes through Asia connecting China to the Mediterranean Sea / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Silk Road was a group of trade routes that went across Asia to the Mediterranean Sea. This let China trade with the Middle East and the Mediterranean world.
It was called the Silk Road because silk was traded along it.[1] At the time, silk was only made in China, and it was a valuable material. The Silk Road not only earned China a lot of money, but all along the route cities prospered and markets flourished. Cities like Samarkand and Bukhara were built largely on the trade from the silk route.
Trade on the Silk Road played a big part in the growth of the ancient cultures of China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, and Rome, and helped to make the beginning of today's world. The term Silk Road is English for the German word "Seidenstraße". The first person who called it that was a German geographer in 1877.[1]