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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.
4th 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 icecold 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 (Tajik: Самарқанд, Persian:
‫ سمرقند‬, 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 (3951204 and 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (12041261), 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.