The Silk Roads are a collection of trade routes that connected China and Europe from 100 BCE to 1500 CE. Over 8,000 kilometers of road extended from Asia to the Mediterranean Sea. These routes traversed both land and sea, and ran in all directions. Many sought the highly prized silk from China. During this time period, silk was a precious commodity that was valued by men and women worldwide because of its rarity, visual beauty, and unique tactile quality.

Material goods were not the only things exchanged on the Silk Roads. As Vaime Elisseef writes in his book The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce, the Silk Roads, "introduced sedentary and nomadic populations, and opened up a form of dialogue between the cultures of the East and the West" (Elisseff 2). Religious beliefs, general knowledge, medical practices, and cultural practices represent even greater riches that were transported in all directions along the Silk Roads. This website has been dedicated to the various historical periods of the Silk Roads; the religious ideologies transmitted, the trade commodities exchanged, and art located produced on the Silk Roads.

Elisseeff, Vadime. The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce. New York: Berhahn Books, 2000.

How Silk is Made
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu:8050/course/ent425/text01/
sericulture.html