Great Silk Road

Great Silk Road

My journey to the country of the Great Silk Road – Uzbekistan, has finally come to an end. I made my trip at the end of April, 2012, with my guide from Israel, who had been previously working as a journalist in this country for a long time – Slava Kim. In ten days, we managed to visit the most ancient cities of Central Asia – Khiva, Bukhara, Samarqand, and Tashkent. Wherever the pathway of our journey would take us, we were always welcomed by hospitable, generous, and joyful people of Uzbekistan. And what delicious dishes they make in Uzbekistan! And they are different in every region! You will not find such an abundance of tastes and aromas in any other country. In the course of our journey, we were able to dive into the thousand-year-long history and culture of this legendary land.

I will share my impressions from the journey into the land of the Great Silk Road, about its cities, history, culture, and places of interest on the pages of my web-site. To begin with, I would like to say something about the Great Silk Road.

As for the term The Great Silk Road, it was originally introduced into scientific usage by Ferdinand von Richthofen, German geographer and geologist, in the 1870s to denote the connections between the Far East and the Western world; the term turned out to be very felicitous and was widely accepted.

What the Great Silk Road evokes in the imagination of everyone of us is caravans filled with exotic goods that steadily moved through the heat of the deserts and over the mountainous ranges, facing so many risks, for several months, from the fabulous countries of South-Eastern Asia to the flourishing ad prosperous cities of the Middle East, Mediterranean, and further – to Europe. The caravans journeyed in the other direction as well.

In the IV century before Our Era, in the Classical Antiquity, there was a strong urge for expansion to the East, into Asia. Later this expansion became closely associated with the concept of Hellenism. Even Herodotus here and there makes rather peculiar remarks – about the fabulous fertility of the land in Mesopotamia, the wealth of Asian people, their abundance of cattle, gold, and beautiful clothing.

The Great Silk Road began to function in the second half of the II century before Our Era, when a Chinese envoy and scout Zhang Qian first discovered for the Chinese the West Lands – countries of Central Asia. Thus, two great roads were connected into one whole. The first one which started from the West, from the countries around the Mediterranean Sea to the Central Asia, which was discovered and passed by the Hellenes and Macedonians during the campaigns of Alexander the Great and Seleucid commander Demodam reaching as far as the Yaksart-Syrdarya River. The second road heading from the East, from the Han Empire to Central Asia, which was spied out by Zhang Qian, who passed this region from North to South through the Dayuan, Kangju, Sogdia, and Bactria.

Thus, a prominent role in the joining of these two great civilizations – those of the West and of the Far East, was played by the peoples of Central Asia, who, undoubtedly, acted as intermediaries for both sides. After some time, according to Chinese and Greek and Roman sources, caravans with merchandise and diplomatic envoys travelled on the Great Silk Road.

The name – the Great Silk Road is related to the precious merchandise of those days in the West – silk, which became the main commodity brought by the Chinese merchants to the distant lands. Light and compact, and therefore especially handy for transportation, it attracted the attention of buyers along the entire caravans’ route, despite its obvious expensiveness. Silk fabrics had an unusual feeling of softness, exquisiteness, beauty, and had something exotic in them. People craved to possess them and admire them. Silk was highly esteemed in East Turkestan and Central Asia, India and Parthia, Rome and Alexandria. For example, Egyptian Queen Cleopatra loved gorgeous garments made of this material. The ancient people loved silk because of its unique natural and technical characteristics. With silk peace was bought, unions were agreed, silk was sent with ambassadors to the rulers of the far away countries.

But it would not be fare to bring down the significance of the Great Silk Road in the history of the world civilization uniquely to the silk trade. Its role was much greater and more diverse, because not caravans alone traveled on it with different eastern and western goods, but intellectual values and religious ideas too.

The Great Silk Road started in Rome and led through the Mediterranean sea to the Syrian city of Hierapolis, and from there – through Mesopotamia, North Iran, Central Asia to the oases of East Turkestan and further on to China. The distances on different types of routes could be as great as ten thousand kilometers in intercontinental sections, or several thousand kilometers in continental ones; local roads could be dozens kilometers long, paths and pathways – between several hundred meters and dozens of kilometers (mountain paths, paths to hunting lands and pastures). On the average, a caravan could travel 23-26 kilometers a day.

The Great Silk Road was not only the road for trading caravans, but also the way for ethnic migrations. It was by this very route, starting from the first millennium BC, that from East to West countless streams of nomadic tribes journeyed: Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Avars, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Pechenegs, and their numbers were uncountable.

Inter-Asian international communication via these roads had a great impact on architecture and city-building. One example is good enough to prove this fact – Central Asia with its marvelous constructions of Timur in Samarqand, Ak-SarayPalace in Shahrisabz, Timurids’ burial sepulcher Gur Emir, and Khoja Akhmet Yassavi mosques in the city of Turkestan. Here the architectural styles, forms, and building techniques of many countries met. All of this was created not only by the architects from Central Asia, but also by masters from Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Iraq, Syria, Asia Minor, and India. Exchange of cultural values is the greatest achievement of the functioning Great Silk Road. Buddhism, for example, caused Chinese revival and blossoming of philosophy, science, and literature on a significantly higher quality level. Islam, although unlike Buddhism it first spread its influence in a forceful way, on the vast territories of the Great Silk Road area also created its unprecedented spiritual world, its unique culture, by absorbing into it the achievements of scores of countries and peoples.

The history of the legendary Great Silk Road is full of mysteries and riddles. Here ancient civilizations rose and fell, new ethnic groups came into existence and whole nations perished due to the invasions of raiders; unknown masters created priceless monuments of culture, Buddhist preachers in an unfathomable way maintained the atmosphere of high spirituality and religious tolerance, celebrated travelers made astounding discoveries.

The experience of the past helps us to understand each other better, to feel the succession of our civilization’s development, the unfading relatedness of the times and peoples’ destinies. Thus, the Great Silk Road presents itself as one of the most ancient integral models of development of the human society.