Trading connections - THE SILK AND SPICE ROUTES
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The Silk and Spice Routes went across and around Asia connecting it with the Europe. The Silk Route by land and the Spice Route by sea.
The Silk Route (or road) is several land routes stretching across Asia fro over 8,000km. Starting in Changan, an ancient capital of China. Went north west along the length of the Great Wall of China, then split into two to skirt the Taklamakan Desert and using several high passes to cross the snow-covered peaks of the Pamir Mountains (one of the mountain ranges in central Asia). Merchants and travellers on the silk and Spice Route then moved through Afghanistan and Iran and on to the Mediterranean Sea. The goods were transferred to ships bound for Europe. The Silk Route operated as a major channel for trade from about 100 BCE to 1500 CE.
The Spice Routes were made up of sea lanes that spread around Asia for a distance of over 15,000km. Their focal point was the Spice Islands, a string of Indonesion Islands, today called Moluccas, the only place where the sought after pungent cloves and nutmegs grew.
Then the Spice Routes spread across the China Seas to China and Japan and westwards to India. To reach Europe and the Mediterranien, the goods were carried up the Persian Gulf and overland via Iraq and to cities such as Palmyra - or were carried up the Red Sea then carried overland via Egypt to cities such as Alexandria.
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