Silk Road
The Old Silk Road
The old Silk Road, that legendary trade route between East and West, was not a single road, but considered to be a network of routes that connected West (mainly Rome) with East (China). Some of these roads led through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The Silk Road was not used just for the transportation of silk, but also for the exchange of a variety of goods between the great empires. The traders did not travel from one end to the other, but moved only a little way along the road to sell their wares in the great cities of the Silk Road and to purchase other goods before they travel back.
The old Silk Road already exists for 2000 years, but its golden age was in the 2nd Century AD. In the middle of the first millennium AD its popularity began to decrease steadily - the trade route across the sea was more accessible, and its role as a link between different peoples began to disappear. Nevertheless, short routes were still used as local commercial roads.