The Silk Road: Historical Geography Developed by Joe Naumann, UMSL

The Silk Road • • The

Silk Road

, or

Silk Route

, is an interconnected series of trade routes through Southern Asia mainly connecting Chang'an (today's Xi'an) in China, with Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. It extends over 8,000 km (5,000 miles) on land and sea.

Trade on the Silk Route was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, Mesopotamia, Persia, India and Rome, and helped to lay the foundations for the modern world.

The Chinese Section

Major Stops on the Road

Taklamakan Desert

Tourists ready to begin a Silk Road tour.

Cities and Sights Along the Silk Road

Chang’an (Xian today) • The site of the Han capital was located 5 km northwest of modern Xi'an. As the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, it was the political, economic and cultural center of China, the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, and a cosmopolitan metropolis comparable with the greatest cities of the contemporaneous Roman Empire.

Chang’an area – satellite view

The statue is at the starting point of the ancient Silk Road of Chang'an (present Xian City).

City Wall of Chang’an

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

The Great Mosque – 50,000 Muslims in Xi’an today

Tianshui •

Tianshui

is the second largest city in Gansu province in northwest China, with approximately 320,300 people. A nearby tourist attraction is the Maijishan Grottoes filled with thousands of ancient Buddhist sculptures. The Qin state, later to become the founding dynasty of the Chinese empire, grew out from this area, and the Qin name itself is believed to have originated, in part, from there. Qin tombs have been excavated from Fangmatan near Tianshui, including one 2200 year old map of Guixian county. It is a diocese of the Roman Catholic church, currently vacant.

4 th largest area of Buddhist grottoes

Maiji Mountain

Market Place

Residential Area

Lanzhou • Early settlement in this region could be dated to the Han Dynasty and has a history of over 2,000 years. The city used to be called the

Golden City

, when it was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. To protect the city, the Great Wall of China was extended as far as Yumen.

Lanzhou area – satellite view

Mountain Scenery

Old Irrigation Waterwheel

Sleeping Buddha

Traditional Sheepskin Raft

Lanzhou: Sangke Prairie – local family and their home

Dunhuang • • The city is located near the historic junction of the northern and southern Silk Roads, and was therefore a town of military importance.

For centuries Buddhist monks at Dunhuang collected scriptures from the west, and many pilgrims passed through the area, painting murals inside the Mogao Caves or "Caves of a Thousand Buddhas."

Satellite view of Dunhuang area.

The Mingsha Shan dune overlooking Dunhuang

Sand dunes outside Dunhuang

Dunhuang city wall.

Buddhist Temple Grotto of 1000 Caves

Spring oasis near Dunhuang on the Silk Road

Turfan (Turpan) • The Oasis of Turfan (with water provided by karez) is some 260ft under sea level. Around Turfan are quite a few historic sites. Turfan has long been the centre of a fertile oasis and an important trade centre. It was historically located along the Silk Road's northern route. The very heat and dryness of the summer, when combined with the area's ancient system of irrigation, allows the countryside around Turfan to produce great quantities of high-quality fruit.

Turfan Oasis – satellite view Can you spot the oasis?

What a difference water makes!

Karez (underground irrigation)

Karez • 2000 kilometers of underground channels (Karez) bring bring ice cold water from the Tianshan mountains to Turfan. They have to be underground as otherwise the water would evaporate on the way. This system is 2000 years old.

Desert Road

Flaming Mountains

Home in Turfan

Children from Turfan

Buddhist temple caves

Street and covered walks.

Emin minaret in Turfan

Khotan • Khotan is an oasis town in Khotan Prefecture and its capital as well, population 114,000 (2006). An important station on the southern route of the historic Silk Road, it has always depended on two strong rivers the Karakash River and the Yurungkash River to provide the water needed to survive on the southwestern edge of the vast Taklamakan desert.

Taklamakan Desert – satellite view – near Khotan

Kashgar Turfan Taklamakan Desert Khotan

• Taklamakan Desert The

Taklamakan

is a desert of Central Asia, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It is known as the largest sand-only desert in the world. Some references fancifully state that

Taklamakan

means

"if you go in, you won't come out"

; others state that it means

"Desert of Death"

or

"Place of No Return."

It covers an area of 270,000 km² of the Tarim Basin. It is crossed at its northern and at its southern edge by two branches of the Silk Road.

Caravan in the Taklamakan Desert

Khotan mosque

Sunday market in Khotan

Man with goat on the road to Khotan

School children in Khotan

Carpet weaving in Khotan

Khotan Carpet

Kashgar – last stop in China • Kashgar is sited west of the Taklamakan desert at the feet of the Tian Shan mountain range. Situated at the junction of routes from the valley of the Oxus, from Khokand and Samarkand, Almati, Aksu, and Khotan, the last two leading from China and India, Kashgar has been noted from very early times as a political and commercial centre. The Kashgar oasis is where both the northern and southern routes from China around the Taklamakan desert converge.

Pamir Mts. West of Kashgar

Pamir Mountains • Located in Central Asia, the

Pamir Mountains

are formed by the junction or "knot" of the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains. They are also known by the Chinese name of

Congling

葱嶺 or 'Onion Mountains.' Covered in snow throughout the year, the Pamirs have long and bitterly cold winters, and short, cool summers. Annual precipitation is about 5 inches (130 mm), which supports grasslands but few trees.

Pamir Mts. Seen from the Silk Road

Old town section of Kashgar

New development in Kashgar

Sunday market & Idkah Mosque

Irrigation in Kashgar

Sunday market in Kashgar

Sunday market in Kashgar – ready to cook goat meat

Spinning silk thread in Kashgar

Kashgar: Tomb of Muslim poet Yusup Hazi Hajups

Leaving China The Silk Road west of China

Samarkand •

Samarkand دنقرمس

(Tajik: Самарқанд, Persian: , Uzbek: Samarqand, Самарқанд, Russian: Самарканд), population 412,300 in 2005, is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province. The city is most noted for its central position on the Asian Silk Road between China and the west. Despite its status as the second city of Uzbekistan, the majority of the city's inhabitants (90%) are Persian -speaking Tajiks.

Samarkand

Man at the Registan – site of three Muslim clergy academies.

View of the three academies.

Minaret in Samarkand

Old couple in Samarkand

Samarkand bazaar

Gur Emir, Tamerlane’s mausoleum in his capital, Samarkand

Bukhara • Bukhara is the fifth-largest city in Uzbekistan, and capital of the Bukhara Province. It has a population of 237,900 (1999 census estimate). Bukhara (along with Samarkand) is one of the two major centres of Uzbekistan's Tajik minority. These two cities, Samarkand and Bukhara, belonged to Persians, especially to eastern part, who are now Tajiks. It is also home to a large number of Jews, whose ancestors settled in the city during Roman times.

Entrance to the Ark Fortress

Mausoleum of Sufi Bakhautdin Naqshband

Fig vendor in Bukhara market

Beautiful mosaic work

Bukhara rooftops

Old shopping mall still in operation

Khiva • In the early part of its history, the inhabitants of the area were from Iranian stock and spoke an Eastern Iranian language called Khwarezmian. The city of Khiva was first recorded by Muslim travelers in the 10th century, although archaeologists assert that the city has existed since the 6th century. By the early 17th century, Khiva had become the capital of the Khanate of Khiva, ruled over by a branch of the Astrakhans, a Genghisid dynasty.

Old entrance to Kukhana Ark

Serpentine walls of Khiva

Central square of Khiva

Strolling through Khiva

• New Serai

At Tzaref in southern Russia, north of the Caspian Sea, are ruins which were once--possibly--the Mongol cities of Serai and New Serai, seats of Batu Khan and Janibeg Khan. New Serai was also known as Great Serai, and it was the capital of the Golden Horde; it lies in unusually good pasturage near the salt works of Selitrennoi Gorodok. In the nineteenth century, Pallas explored the area, and saw that the ruins were being pulled down and defaced.

Northwestern Terminus • This was the end of the northern route from Kashgar.

Southern Route from Kashgar This route terminated at the Mediterranean Sea.

Bactria • According to some writers, Bactria was the homeland of Aryan tribes who moved south-west into Iran and into North-Western India around 2500-2000 BC Later it became the north province of the Persian Empire in Central Asia. It was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country is surrounded by the Turanian desert, that the prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) was said to have been born and gained his first adherents.

Bactria

Ancient Bactria • BALKH - (ancient Bactria) Called the "Mother of Cities," Balkh is about 22 kms. (13 mi.) west of Mazar-e-Sharif. Today nothing remains of its ancient glory except a series of ruins such as the famous Arch Of Nawbahar and the remains of a Buddhist Stupa.

Buddhist stupas in Bactria

Pasture in Bactria

Along the Silk Road

Merv • Merv in current-day Turkmenistan, was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of culture and politics at a site of major strategic value. It is claimed that Merv was briefly the largest city in the world in the twelfth century. The site of ancient Merv has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

New Silk Road under construction

Walls of ancient Merv

Archaeologists at ancient Merv.

Ancient Merv Citadel

Near ancient Merv

Tehran area south of the Caspian Sea

Area west of Tehran

Mesopotamia

Baghdad •

Baghdad

is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. With an estimated population of seven million, it is the largest city in Iraq. It is the second-largest city in the Arab world (after Cairo) and the second-largest city in southwest Asia (after Tehran). Located on the Tigris River the city dates back to at least the 8th century, and probably to pre-Islamic times. It was once the center of Dar al-salam, the Muslim world.

Iraq map

Mosque in Baghdad.

Mosque and arch

Dust storm in Baghdad

Babylon • The city itself was built upon the Euphrates, and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. Babylon grew in extent and grandeur over time, but gradually became subject to the rule of Assyria. It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c. 1770 to 1670 BC, and again between c. 612 and 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000.

Rebuilt ruins of Babylon

Babylon

Damascus •

Damascus

is the largest city of Syria and is also the capital. It is thought to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. before Al Fayyum, and Gaziantep. Its current population is estimated at about 4.5 million. Damascus lies about 80 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea, sheltered by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. It lies on a plateau 680 meters above sea-level. The old city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, lies on the south bank of the river BaradDamascus lies about 80 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea, sheltered by the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. It lies on a plateau 680 meters above sea-level. The old city of Damascus, enclosed by the city walls, lies on the south bank of the river Barada.

Damascus at sunset.

Downtown Damascus

Ummayyad Mosque in old Damascus

Antioch •

Antioch on the Orontes

was an ancient city on the eastern side (left bank) of the Orontes River located on the site of the modern city of Antakya, Turkey. Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch was destined to rival Alexandria as the chief city of the nearer East and to be the cradle of gentile Christianity. It was one of the four cities of the Syrian tetrapolis.

Antioch

Antioch and Damascus located.

Antioch

View of Antioch

Orontes River at Antioch

The final leg of the journey.

From Antioch to Constantinople (Istanbul today) by sea.

Constantinople (Istanbul) •

Constantinople

was the capital of the Roman Empire (330-395), the Byzantine Empire (395 1204 and 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204 1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922). It was officially renamed to its modern Turkish name Istanbul in 1930 as part of Atatürk's Turkish national reforms. Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Constantinople was extremely important as the successor to ancient Rome and the largest and wealthiest city in Europe throughout the Middle Ages; it was known as the

Queen of Cities

(

Vasileousa Polis

).

Constantinople

Location

The port of Constantinople

Walls of Constantinople

Better preserved triple wall

Hagia Sophia – Istanbul’s most beautiful and famous structure.