Legacy of the Silk Road

Traders stopping at outposts and oasis on the Silk Road led to the rise of numerous powerful and wealthy cities,many of which still exist today.

At one point, was the largest city in the world, once descibred as the "Mother of the World"

The city and all of its people were destroyed by Gengis Khan in 1221.

The capital of the Byzantine Empire, was the wealthiest and most powerful city in the world at its peak.

Was the western end of the Silk Road, and where was goods from India and China would have went west.

Connected India to the Silk Road

A great center of learning; at one point home to the earliest university in the World.

Not only were goods traded, the ideas and technologies to trade those goods were also shared.

Paper making, the crossbow, silk, the compass.

Gunpowder would make its way from China to the West in the coming centuries.

The Chinese adopted fewer new technologies than they provided, but they did learn certain farming and irrigation techniques from the West.

Perhaps the most important legacy of the Silk Road was the cultural exchanges it facilitated.

Buddhism was introduced to China through trade with India.

China now has one of the largest and longest Buddhist traditions in the world.

For many years, Buddhhism was more popular in China than India.

Though far less popular, various Christian and Muslim sects grew in China due to exposure from the Silk Road.