Thursday, April 28, 2016

Walking the silk road?

We're still here. Or maybe I should say we're back again. We're thinking of walking the Silk Road. Erin has some maps to post. Where do we want to start and end?

2 comments:

Jean said...

I'm happy either way. Looking forward to meandering the path, thankful I don't have to worry about supplies.

Bonnie said...

Here's Wikipedia's description of the southern route. We'd start in Kashgar and end in Alexandria.


The southern route or Karakoram route was mainly a single route running from China through the Karakoram mountains, where it persists in modern times as the international paved road connecting Pakistan and China as the Karakoram Highway. It then set off westwards, but with southward spurs enabling the journey to be completed by sea from various points. Crossing the high mountains, it passed through northern Pakistan, over the Hindu Kush mountains, and into Afghanistan, rejoining the northern route near Merv, Turkmenistan. From Merv, it followed a nearly straight line west through mountainous northern Iran, Mesopotamia, and the northern tip of the Syrian Desert to the Levant, where Mediterranean trading ships plied regular routes to Italy, while land routes went either north through Anatolia or south to North Africa. Another branch road travelled from Herat through Susa to Charax Spasinu at the head of the Persian Gulf and across to Petra and on to Alexandria and other eastern Mediterranean ports from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome.