I have always had day dreams about a trip that followed the silk road but since such a trip would start in Baghdad take me through a number of the worlds political hot spots such as Iran, and through Afghanistan to end in China it is in the realm of day dreams at the moment. An article on trade routes in the ancient world stirred my day dreams further this morning.
Textiles and culinary delights drove early exploration and trade. In other words as a race the blokes were sent off in search off in search of good cloth and good food. After my trip to China last year I still want to follow the silk road but until the globe settles down a bit it will remain on my ‘to do’ list. Anyway my exploration this morning involved heading off to google a few keywords. I discovered a few sites to feed the fantasy of travel along the old trade routes.
Ancient Routes is a site created Rodney R. Baird which covers travelling a number of the ancient trade routes around the Mediterranean. As a site it looks as though it is constantly being built and tended but never quite finished. Nevertheless there is plenty of information on a number of routes including the Silk road the Kings Highway and the Amber route.
Indulging myself further this morning I discovered this Map of Ancient Trade Routes From Mesopotamia and this other site on ancient Trade Routes including the Appian Way.
Thank you so much for these sites! I am really going to enjoy exploring them. Tim Severin is an author you might enjoy. He recreated several historical explorations (fictional and factual)one of which was Marco Polo by Motorcycle.