A Brief Introduction – The Silk Route was an important trade route, from the 300 BCE to 1700 CE. Also called as the Silk Road, it connected various parts of the world (by both land and sea routes), such as India, China, Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Romania and Babylonia. It was called the Silk Route as Silk was the main product traded, apart from spices from India, pots from Greece and Romania, architectural styles from Arabia or even the knowledge of scholars!
Two of the most important inland routes within the Silk Route are as follows: Persian Royal Road – It is the area covered by the black circle (as shown in the map pasted above). As the name suggests, it was a major trade center for goods made from Persia. The Arabian carpets, tapestries, pearls, copper and incense were the most famous materials traded. The Ledo Route – The Ledo route occupies parts of present-day China, Bangladesh and Myanmar (then Burma) and is shown by a golden-colored circle in the map. A Greco-Roman geographer named Claudius Ptolemy came here and drew the Ganga delta, and even named the landform so (delta as it resembled the Greek alphabet Δ). Many Buddhist texts and ideas were also passed on from here.