Fore more than 1,500 years and covering a distance of 4,000 + miles, the Silk Road brought together East and West.

The result was political, economic, and cultural integration through development of the various countries through which it passed. The travellers, merchants, traders and missionaries exchanged cultural, scientific, educational and spiritual values.

All of the countries greatly contributed to the development of this global transit network. The goods and products spread along the Silk Roads and centres of culture, science and education. Oil, carpets, raw silk, silk fabrics, cotton, weapons, dried fruits, salt, precious stones, jewellery, alum, saffron, natural dyes, polychrome pottery, ceramics, wooden utensils, non-ferrous metals, sturgeons, and caviar ironwood were just some of the long list of traded goods. Bilateral land and sea routes linked Europe with China, Syria, India, Asia Minor, Iran, Egypt, Russia, the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and Europe. The British laid their routes to India via Azerbaijan and Indian merchants traded in spices and cashmere fabrics in Baku and Shamakhi. Baku also served as a transit point for goods passing from China and India through the Black Sea to Constantinople.

The capital of the Ottoman empire continued to be a hub for major trade as Bursa & Istanbul provided land and sea routes into Europe and North Africa.

Across the central Asian cities of Samarkand & Bukhara the silk road thrived both east and west. Sea routes into Africa via Egypt. Trade routes were opened into the South Asia via the Khyber pass. The Karakorum highway posed difficuilty and challenges but it did not stop the merchants trading.

Goods reached every corner of the world and laid the foundation of present day trade routes and business transactions on a massive scale facilitated with modern infrastructure and technology.

The Silk Road

Map of the Silk Road