Silk Road

The Silk Road was an ancient trade network that connected Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. It was a complex web of routes, both overland and maritime, that facilitated the exchange of goods, culture, and ideas between civilizations for over a millennium. Beginning in the Han Dynasty of China around the 2nd century BCE, it continued until the 14th century CE, when the rise of more robust maritime trade routes, the decline of the Mongol Empire, and the spread of the bubonic plague led to its decline.