The Silk Road was a network of trade routes organized by the Chinese silk business since the 1st century BC, which extended throughout the Asian continent, connecting China with Mongolia, the Indian subcontinent, Persia, Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Europe and Africa. Its different routes began in the city of Chang'an (currently Xi'an) in China, passing among others by Karakórum (Mongolia), the Khunjerab Pass (China/Pakistan), Susa (Persia), the Fergana Valley (Tajikistan) ), Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Taxila (Pakistan), Antioch in Turkey, Alexandria (Egypt), Kazan (Russia) and Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) at the gates of Europe, reaching the Spanish kingdoms in the fifteenth century, and Somalia and Ethiopia in East Africa.
The most important result of the Silk Road was that it interconnected commercially and culturally the peoples of the Old World. Thus, goods from China or the Middle East reached European markets on a daily basis, European literature could be read in Chinese libraries, etc.
It was a huge network of culture and commercial exchange that lasted until the Age of Discovery, in which Europeans stopped using this route to look for other commercial routes.