The Silk Road carried silk, spices and other goods between China and the Mediterranean world.
The Silk Road was not one road but a network of land and maritime routes linking East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Merchants, pilgrims, diplomats and travelers used different sections over many centuries, exchanging goods as well as technologies, religions, artistic ideas and diseases.
Chinese silk gave the network its modern name, but many commodities traveled along it, including horses, spices, precious metals, glassware and textiles. The phrase “Silk Road” was coined in the nineteenth century by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen. Its routes changed as political powers, security conditions and maritime alternatives changed.