The Mongolian Empire was to be fairly short-lived. Splits between the different khans had erupted as early as 1262. Although the East was considerably more stable, especially under the rule of Kubilai, it also succumbed to resurgence of Chinese nationalism, and after several minor local rebellions in the first few decades of the fourteenth century, […]
The height of the importance of the Silk Road was during the Tang dynasty, with relative internal stability in China after the divisions of the earlier dynasties since the Han. The individual states has mostly been assimilated, and the threats from marauding peoples was rather less.
During this period, in the seventh century, the Chinese traveller […]
On the eastern and western sides of the continent, the civilizations of China and the West developed. The western end of the trade route appears to have developed earlier than the eastern end, principally because of the development of the the empires in the west, and the easier terrain of Persia and Syria. The Iranian […]
The region separating China from Europe and Western Asia is not the most hospitable in the world. Much of it is taken up by the Taklimakan desert, one of the most hostile environments on our planet. There is very little vegetation, and almost no rainfall; sandstorms are very common, and have claimed the lives of […]
The Silk Road, or Silk Route, refers to a trade route through regions of the Asian continent connecting East and West Asia. Geographically, it is an interconnected series of ancient trade routes connecting Chang’an (today’s Xi’an) to Europe and the Near East. It was central to cultural transmission by linking traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, […]
Retracing one of the most important trading routes of ancient civilization, this remarkable tour follows in the footsteps of such legendary figures as Alexander the Great and Marco Polo.
Crossing Russia and China as well as some of the remotest former Soviet republics – Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – our journey will take in some of […]
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