The Silk Road Part 1:Historical Geography

Developed by Joe Naumann, UMSL

The Silk Road

• The Silk Road, or Silk Route, is an interconnected series of trade routes through Southern Asia mainly connecting Chang'an (today's Xi'an) in China, with Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. It extends over 8,000 km (5,000 miles) on land and sea.

• Trade on the Silk Route was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, Mesopotamia, Persia, India and Rome, and helped to lay the foundations for the modern world.

The Chinese Section

Major Stops on the Road: The whole trip.

TaklamakanDesert

Leave China Here

Tourists ready to begin a Silk Road tour.

Cities and Sights: China

Along the Silk Road

Chang’an (Xian today)

• The site of the Han capital was located 5 km northwest of modern Xi'an. As the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, it was the political, economic and cultural center of China, the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, and a cosmopolitan metropolis comparable with the greatest cities of the contemporaneous Roman Empire. Many Silk Road caravans started here.

Chang’an area – satellite view

The statue is at the starting point of the ancient Silk Road of Chang'an

(present Xian City).

City Wall of Chang’an

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

The Great Mosque – 50,000 Muslims in Xi’an today

Tianshui

• Tianshui is the second largest city in Gansu province in northwest China, with approximately 320,300 people. A nearby tourist attraction is the Maijishan Grottoes filled with thousands of ancient Buddhist sculptures. The Qin state, later to become the founding dynasty of the Chinese empire, grew out from this area, and the Qin name itself is believed to have originated, in part, from there. Qin tombs have been excavated from Fangmatan near Tianshui, including one 2200 year old map of Guixian county. It is a diocese of the Roman Catholic church, currently vacant.

4th largest area of Buddhist grottoes

Maiji Mountain

Market Place

Residential Area

Lanzhou

• Early settlement in this region could be dated to the Han Dynasty and has a history of over 2,000 years. The city used to be called the Golden City, when it was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. To protect the city, the Great Wall of China was extended as far as Yumen.

Lanzhou area – satellite view

Mountain Scenery

Old Irrigation Waterwheel

Sleeping Buddha

Traditional Sheepskin Raft

Lanzhou: Sangke Prairie – local family and their home

Wuwei

• In ancient times Wuwei was called Liangzhou ( 凉州 ) and is the eastern terminus of the Hexi Corridor. People began settling here 5000 years ago. It was an important part of the Silk Road. In 121 BC Han emperor Wudi brought his cavalry here to defend the Hexi Corridor. His military success allowed him to expand the corridor west. Its importance as a stop along the Silk Road made it a crossroads of cultures and ethnicities from all over central Asia.

Confucian Temple

Bell tower in Wuwei

Haizang Temple

Entrance to Han tomb

Railroad station in modern Wuwei

Zhangye• Zhangye is located in far western Gansu

province. In the north it borders Inner Mongolia and in the south Qinghai. It has a large area of 42,000 km² and is blessed with numerous streams, abundant sunlight and fertile soil, making it an important agricultural center for Gansu and all of China. Zhangye is in the center of the Hexi Corridor, an important section of the Silk Road.

Zhangye giant sleeping Buddha

Impressive Chinese architecture

Jiayuguan

• Jiayuguan is home to Jiayuguan Pass, the largest and most intact pass, or entrance, of the Great Wall. Jiayuguan Pass was built in the early Ming dynasty, somewhere around the year 1372. It was built near an oasis that was then on the extreme western edge of China. Jiayuguan Pass was the first pass on the west end of the great wall so it earned the name “The First And Greatest Pass Under Heaven

The Great Wall at Jiayuguan

Jaiyuguan Fort outside

Jiayuguan Fort inside

Ruins of the Great Wall near Jaiyuguan

Wide load in Jiayuguan

Urumqi

• Located in a green oasis between the lofty ice-capped Bogda Peak, the vast Salt Lake in the east, the rolling pine-covered Southern hill and the alternating fields and sand dunes of Zunggar Basin in the northwest, Ürümqi has an average elevation of 800 meters. It is the largest city in the western half of China.

Shops in old Urumqi

Encampment of yurts near Urumqi

Korla• The Iron Gate Pass (Tiemenguan) leading to

Karashahr is about 7 km (4 miles) north of the city and, as it was easily defended, played an important part in protecting the ancient Silk Roads from raiding nomads from the north Korla has long been the biggest centre in the region after Karashahr itself, having abundant water and extensive farmlands, as well as controlling the main routes to the south and west of Karashahr. Due to the discovery of oil in the Taklamakan Desert, Korla is now both more populous and far more developed than Karashar.

Korla from above

Korla, know for fragrant pears

Dunhuang

• The city is located near the historic junction of the northern and southern Silk Roads, and was therefore a town of military importance.

• For centuries Buddhist monks at Dunhuang collected scriptures from the west, and many pilgrims passed through the area, painting murals inside the Mogao Caves or "Caves of a Thousand Buddhas."

Satellite view of Dunhuang area.

The Mingsha Shan dune

overlooking Dunhuang

Sand dunes outside Dunhuang

Dunhuang city wall.

Buddhist Temple Grotto of 1000 Caves

Spring oasis near Dunhuang on the Silk Road

Turfan (Turpan)• The Oasis of Turfan (with water provided

by karez) is some 260ft under sea level. Around Turfan are quite a few historic sites. Turfan has long been the centre of a fertile oasis and an important trade centre. It was historically located along the Silk Road's northern route. The very heat and dryness of the summer, when combined with the area's ancient system of irrigation, allows the countryside around Turfan to produce great quantities of high-quality fruit.

Turfan Oasis – satellite viewCan you spot the oasis?

What a difference water makes!

Karez (underground irrigation)

Karez

• 2000 kilometers of underground channels (Karez) bring bring ice-cold water from the Tianshan mountains to Turfan. They have to be underground as otherwise the water would evaporate on the way. This system is 2000 years old.

Desert Road

Flaming Mountains

Home in Turfan

Children from Turfan

Buddhist temple caves

Street and covered walks.

Emin minaret in

Turfan

Khotan

• Khotan is an oasis town in Khotan Prefecture and its capital as well, population 114,000 (2006). An important station on the southern route of the historic Silk Road, it has always depended on two strong rivers the Karakash River and the Yurungkash River to provide the water needed to survive on the southwestern edge of the vast Taklamakan desert.

Taklamakan Desert – satellite view – near Khotan

KhotanKhotan

Taklamakan Desert

Kashgar

Turfan

Taklamakan Desert• The Taklamakan is a desert of Central

Asia, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It is known as the largest sand-only desert in the world. Some references fancifully state that Taklamakan means "if you go in, you won't come out"; others state that it means "Desert of Death" or "Place of No Return." It covers an area of 270,000 km² of the Tarim Basin. It is crossed at its northern and at its southern edge by two branches of the Silk Road.

Caravan in the Taklamakan Desert

Khotan mosque

Sunday market in Khotan

Man with goat on the road to Khotan

School children in Khotan

Carpet weaving

in Khotan

Khotan Carpet

Kashgar – last stop in China• Kashgar is sited west of the Taklamakan

desert at the feet of the Tian Shan mountain range. Situated at the junction of routes from the valley of the Oxus, from Khokand and Samarkand, Almati, Aksu, and Khotan, the last two leading from China and India, Kashgar has been noted from very early times as a political and commercial centre. The Kashgar oasis is where both the northern and southern routes from China around the Taklamakan desert converge.

Pamir Mts. West of Kashgar

Pamir Mountains• Located in Central Asia, the Pamir

Mountains are formed by the junction or "knot" of the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains. They are also known by the Chinese name of Congling 葱嶺 or 'Onion Mountains.' Covered in snow throughout the year, the Pamirs have long and bitterly cold winters, and short, cool summers. Annual precipitation is about 5 inches (130 mm), which supports grasslands but few trees.

Pamir Mts. Seen from the Silk Road

Old town section of Kashgar

New development in Kashgar

Sunday market & Idkah Mosque

Irrigation in Kashgar

Sunday market in Kashgar

Sunday market in Kashgar – ready to cook goat meat

Spinning silk thread in Kashgar

Kashgar: Tomb of Muslim poet Yusup Hazi Hajups

Now View The Silk Road Part 2

• The journey will continue westward until the Mediterranean Sea is reached and the ultimate destination, Constantinople.

• To view a chronology of the Silk Road, click the map below.