Silk Road

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The Silk Road is the common name for the routes by which silk and other valuable trade goods were transported from China to Europe. By sea, the route tended to go via modern-day Malaysia, through the Indias, and then via Arabia to the Egyptian markets.

Overland the silk tended to be caravanned across southern Mongolia and the edges of the Gobi, and from thence to trade points such as Samarkand, before heading for Constantinople via one or other side of Turkey.

The Silk Road was the main (but limited) interaction that Europe had with Asia, though Middle Eastern traders had a much stronger relationship.