Interactive Map of the Silk Road

As the first truly international trade network, the Silk Road was constructed as a series of trackways stretching out across the vast deserts and mountains and waterways of Asia.

Interactive Map of the Silk Road.

Map drafted by Shizhao

Reaching out from the Han Dynasty of China, first explorers and then caravans connected Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the steppes of Siberia, the mountains of Eurasia and the western capitals of Rome and Alexander's Europe. It's breathtaking to think about.

I spent some time reading and researching and thinking about and trying to comprehend all the bits of the story of the Tapestry Trousers this last month. As I was working through it, I came to recognize how complex the study of the Silk Road is, and how it offers the unique opportunity of studying cultural change and cultural contact across most of the known world between ca 200 BC and 1500 AD.

The Interactive Map of the Silk Road only scratches the surface of the innumerable stories of the few tantalizing fragments left of the Silk Road. But it's a start.

Interactive Map of the Silk Road

• Map of the Silk Road
• Eastern Section
• Central Section
• Western Section