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The Silk Road: Historical Geography. Chapter 24. The Silk Road.
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The Silk Road:Historical Geography Chapter 24
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.
Major Stops on the Road Taklamakan Desert
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.
The statue is at the starting point of the ancient Silk Road of Chang'an (present Xian City).
Tianshui • Tianshuiis 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.
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.
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."
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 viewCan you spot the oasis? What a difference water makes!
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.
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.
