The Silk Road is the name commonly given to the ancient network of routes linking China with the Mediterranean world.
Rather than one road, it was a changing system of land and sea routes crossing Central Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Europe. Chinese silk was a famous traded product, but merchants also moved spices, glass, metals, horses, textiles, paper, and precious stones. The routes connected many independent societies rather than operating under one permanent authority.
Trade was only part of the exchange. Religions, artistic styles, technologies, crops, languages, and diseases traveled along the network. Buddhism spread into Central and East Asia through routes that linked India, Central Asia, and China. Caravan cities such as Samarkand became important centers of commerce and cultural interaction.
The term “Silk Road” is modern: German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen popularized the German expression Seidenstraße in the 19th century. Historians therefore often use “Silk Roads” to emphasize that the network had multiple branches and changed over time.