How Do You Travel The Silk Road?
The Silk Road, a vast and ancient network of overland trade routes, spreads over Europe and Asia and passes through numerous presentday countries. Active trading along the route began sometime in the first millennium B.C.E., introduced the luxuries of the East to the Roman Empire and continued until the early Renaissance era. Travel this route today as part of a cultural and historical adventure. Collect Silk Road literature. Numerous academic and popular works cover this subject, including art histories, anthropological studies, economic investigations and historical novels. Study a map of the region, available online from the Silk Road Project (silkroadproject.org), and choose your route. Read up on the countries that you plan to pass through. Knowledge about the currency, culture, ancient history, current situation and geography will all be helpful and interesting. Use a separate guidebook for each country–those from Lonely Planet Publications (lonelyplanet.com) offer well-rounded
