 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Cities along the Silk Road" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | This articlepossibly containsoriginal research. Pleaseimprove it byverifying the claims made and addinginline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.(June 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheSilk Road was an ancient network oftrade routes that connected many communities ofEurasia by land and sea, stretching from theMediterranean basin in the west to theKorean peninsula and theJapanese archipelago in the east.
Its main eastern end was in the Chinese city ofChang'an (modern-dayXi'an, China) and its main western end was in the Greek city ofAntioch (modern-dayAntakya, Turkey). It came into existence in the 2nd century BCE, whenEmperor Wu of theHan dynasty was in power, and lasted until the 15th century CE, when theOttoman Empire closed off the trade routes with Europe after itcaptured Constantinople and thereby conquered theByzantine Empire.[1]
This article lists thecities along the Silk Road, sorted by region and the modern-day countries in which they lie.
Major cities, broadly from theEastern Mediterranean toSouth Asia, and arranged roughly west to east in each area.
This following list is attributed toPtolemy. All city names are Ptolemy's, throughout all his works. Most of the names are included inGeographia.
Some of the cities provided by Ptolemy either: no longer exist today or have moved to different locations.Nevertheless, Ptolemy has provided an important historical reference for researchers.
(This list has been alphabetized.)