The Silk Roads: Maps, Links, and Stories

The Silk Roads Foundation, a non- profit organization started in 1996, to promote the study and preservation of cultures and art on Inner Asia and the Silk Road, has a website with terrific links to maps and journal articles about the Silk Roads.

Click on Articles, then Journals, and you'll find links to stories about the Silk Roads from Aramco World including The Autobiography of A Coin by Franklin Holt, and The Golden Horses of Turkmenistan by Jonathan Maslow.

One of the most interesting parts of the website are "studies." One of the "studies" reviews how Buddhism spread along the Silk Roads. Another study reviews Dunhuang cave art. Unfortunately, some of the images no longer work.

The history of silk and how its made is another fascinating study.

You'll also find terrific trade maps if you scroll down the left hand menu to Maps. One shows China's trade during the Tang dynasty along the Silk Route during the 8th century.

Route Maps show the routes of famous travelers like Marco Polo and Xuanzang.