The Silk Road

This hugely important trade route brought precious textiles and other commodities from East Asia through the Middle East to Europe. Celia Rufey journeys through its history and legacy

- Celia Rufey

The 4000-mile land route from China to the Mediterranean was named the 'Silk Roads' in 1877 by German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen. His plural points out that this was not a single road but a crisscross of routes, with Chinese silk being the most traded product along them. The Silk Road began in fits and starts during China’s Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), when the Chinese responded to raids by tribesmen of the Mongolian steppes - who stole livestock and took slaves — by offering trading relationships around marriage alliances and gifts of their mysterious silk.

China had plenty of silk to hand: it was women’s full-time task to tend silk moths’ cocoons, reel off the thousand metre thread each individual cocoon delivered, then spin, dye and weave it into cloth. Besides silk’s status as a gift, it could also be traded for camels, horses and donkeys to carry goods along these newly-established routes.