The Silk Road was the ancient network of trade routes connecting China with Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Rather than being one continuous road, it consisted of many overland and maritime routes that changed over time. Chinese silk was one famous export, but merchants also moved spices, metals, glass, textiles, horses and ideas.
The routes expanded especially during the Han dynasty, when diplomatic and commercial links with Central Asia grew from the second century BCE. Oases such as Samarkand and Kashgar became important stopping points across difficult deserts and mountains.
The Silk Road also carried religions, technologies and diseases. Buddhism spread into China along connected routes, while papermaking eventually moved westward. The name “Silk Road” itself was coined by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in the nineteenth century.