The Silk Road

Silk Road, First Century

During the Middle Ages, the Silk Road was an unparalleled cultural formation. Most famous in the west as the route Marco Polo took on his journey to the eastern most reaches of the earth, the Silk Road stretched from Italy to Japan and passed through Turkey, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and China. More than just a trade route for transporting silk, spices, and other valuables from one end of Eurasia to the other, the Silk Road was as a cultural formation transmitting unique musical traditions, epic tales of heroic stature, and splendid culinary delights.