What are the main countries that the Silk Road passes through?

The Silk Road starts from Chang 'an (now Xi 'an) in the east, passes through five countries in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Greece and Italy, and reaches the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, with a total length of more than 7,000 kilometers.

The Silk Road refers to the land passage opened by Zhang Qian in the Western Han Dynasty (202 -8 BC) from Chang 'an (Jin 'an) to Central Asia and West Asia, connecting Mediterranean countries (this road is also known as the "Northwest Silk Road" to distinguish it from the other two traffic routes named "Silk Road" in the future).

Because silk products have the greatest influence on the goods transported to the west, it is named. Its basic trend was set in the Han Dynasty, including three routes: South Road, Middle Road and North Road.

The Silk Road in a broad sense refers to the long-distance commercial, trade and cultural exchange routes that have been formed since ancient times and spread all over Eurasia, even including North Africa and East Africa.

In addition to the above routes, it also includes the Maritime Silk Road, which was formed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and played a great role in the late Ming Dynasty, and the Southern Silk Road, which appeared at the same time as the Northwest Silk Road and replaced the Northwest Silk Road as a communication channel on the road at the end of Yuan Dynasty.

Extended data

Maritime?Silk?Road

The Maritime Silk Road was formed in the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Sailing westward from China, the South China Sea route is the main line of the Maritime Silk Road. At the same time, there is an East China Sea route from China to the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, which occupies a secondary position in the Maritime Silk Road.

With regard to the South China Sea route of the Silk Road in Han Dynasty, Geography of Han Dynasty recorded the voyage that Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty sent envoys and businessmen to the sea for trade, saying that they started from Rinan (now central Vietnam) or Xuwen (now Guangdong) and Hepu (now Guangxi), went south along the east coast of Indo-China Peninsula, and arrived in Du Yuan (now Di City in southern Vietnam) for five months.

After four months' voyage, it arrived in Lu Yi (now a Buddhist sect in Thailand) at the mouth of Chao Phraya River. After that, he went south along the east coast of Malay Peninsula and arrived in Li Zhan (now Bashu, Thailand) more than 20 days later. He abandoned the ship and landed here, crossed the isthmus, walked 10 for more than 0 days, and arrived in the capital Lu (now Dana Shalin, Myanmar).

Then he boarded the ship and sailed west in the Indian Ocean. After more than two months, I arrived at Huang Zhiguo (now Kangchepland on the southeast coast of India).

After returning home, I went down to Putrajaya (now Sri Lanka) from the south of the Yellow River, and then sailed directly to the east. Eight months later, I arrived in Malacca Strait, anchored in Pizong (now Pisan Island in western Singapore), and finally sailed for more than two months, from Pizong to Xianglin County in Rinan County (Chaqiao is located in the south of Weichuan County in Vietnam).

After the Song Dynasty, with the further development of southern China and the shift of the economic center of gravity to the south, the sea routes from Guangzhou, Quanzhou and Hangzhou became increasingly developed, and they went further and further, from Nanyang to the Arabian Sea and even as far as the east coast of Africa. People call these maritime trade routes "Maritime Silk Road".

Baidu Encyclopedia-Silk Road