The Silk Road (or Silk Routes) is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe.

While silk was certainly the major trade item from China and was a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive trans-continental network, in fact, it was an extensive network of routes, few of which were more than rough caravan tracks, which is why some scholars prefer the term "Silk Routes", although silk was by no means the only item traded.

Extending 4,000 miles (6,500 km), the routes enabled people to transport goods, slaves and luxuries such as silk, satin, hemp and other fine fabrics, musk, other perfumes, spices, medicines, jewels, glassware and even rhubarb, as well as serving as a conduit for the spread of knowledge, ideas, cultures, zoological specimens and some non indigenous disease conditions between Ancient China, Ancient India (Indus valley, now Pakistan), Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, India, Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and Rome, and in several respects helped lay the foundations for the modern world.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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