Silk Road

Silk Road
The Silk Road is the world's oldest ancient and most historically important crossland trade route. The Silk Road or also known as the silk route is made up of series of routes. It is important for economic reasons, because to opened up trade between China and Western civilizations as well as central Asia. The Silk Road also brought China different religions such as Christianity and Buddhism. The Silk Road was also a network that brought the spread of disease.

Imports and Exports
The Silk Road linked the two great civilizations of China and Rome for the exchange of goods and culture. China sent silk to the West while goods such as gold, silver, and wool came east. Silk was exclusively made in China which attracted the Central Asian merchants who brought precious items suh as ivory and jade. The Central Asian merchants also exchanged goods such as horses, cattle, fur, and hides. Traders brought new goods such as cucumber, walnuts, sesame seeds, alfalfa, figs, and pomegranates. The traders also brought new skill to China such as using grapes to make wine which helped enhanced China's civilization. The Roman Empire imported more silk thanthan it exported goods, auch as carpets, glass, drugs, amber, jewels, dyes, and metal. China also contributed paper and gunpowder for their part in exchange of goods. Rich spices from the east were also sought after and helped build China's civilization

Importance
The economic benifits of the Silk Road were important to China and many other countries. Some of the greatest value of the Silk Road waas through the exchange of culture. Along with the goods that the merchants carried from country to country, there was the exchange of art, religion, philosophy, technology, language, culture, architecture, and science. The Silk Road allowed for the exchange of every element of a civilization including disease.

Routes
The Silk Road routes stretched from China through India, Asia Minor, up throughout Mesopotamia, to Egypt, the African continent, Greece, Rome, and Britain. The Northern Mesopotamia region became China's closet partner in trade. The original Silk Road was a caravan tract beginning in Sian following the Great wall of China to the Northwest bypassing the Takla Makan Desert climbing the Pamirs mountains, crossing Afghanistan and went onto Levant, and from there was shipped across the Mediterranean Sea.