Ancient Cities&Kingdoms on the Silk Road

>>2315972
what does this have to do with memes?

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>that feel when a multi-religious and culturally interesting Central Asia will never exist again
>that feel when all the powerful merchant cities of the Silk Road are now nothing but dust or buried beneath the hideous tower dwellings of Russian invaders
>that feel when what was once once of the prosperous regions on Earth is now such a backwater that to hear news from it once a year is a miracle

A day will come when sacred Troy shall perish, And Priam and his people shall be slain.

>>2316086
without the silk road it was always destined to be a dusty shithole, anon

>>2315972
This myth about non-water hauling...

>>2315972
Yeah sure.We can talk about it

>>2316086
Fucking european explorers

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>>2316086
I feel this so much

>tfw you will never be a Sogdian tradesman plying the oasis city-states of the Tarim Basin and banging your qt Chinese waifu

suffering

>>2315972
How did the Chinese keep the method of silk production secret for so long?

>>2316930
It wasnt actually: Persianates and Byzantines were churning silk by the 700s or so.

However the Chinese maintained superiority due to the quality and exoticity of silk they traded westwards. In addition to other products such as Ceramics, Tea, Medicines & Drugs, and so on.

Besides the Silk Route isnt entirely powered by China alone, everyone along the route contributed to it.

>>2315972
How about detailed description of any trade trip? Kinda:
1 day: we gather together - 3 traders, 10 servants, 12 warriors. We have 30 horses, food - 4000 kg, water - 200 litres. 100 km passed before night. Camp was assembled near village V.
2 day: we passed 120 km. Spent 7 kg of food, 30 l of water. Night in hotel of town T.

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>>2315972
>You will never travel up the Grand Trunk Road, through Kabul, and find your way into Merv, where you follow the rest of the Silk Road.
>You will never meet huge number of different peoples on your journey following religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity.
>You will never look down from the Roof of the World, the Karakorum and Hindu Kush, and see a desolate valley beneath you

Following both roads would've been one hell of a journey. Imagine going from Europe, through the Silk Road to China, sailing back around through South East Asia and back to Calcutta, where you follow the Grand Trunk Road up to Kabul. From their, follow the Silk Road up and back to Europe.

>>2316104
Yeah what do people honestly believe Central Asia is good for?

Is Alexander's Lost World any good or is it just more covert tolerance propaganda.
I saw Journeys to the Ends of the Earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW0mwtyFZRY&list=PLlYHSlss3wybdP0WUJgbKMNDUmLI14s6G

China has been making efforts to revitalize overland trade routes. This is for making them less reliant on trans-pacific shipping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Belt,_One_Road

>>2316086
>that feel when all the powerful merchant cities of the Silk Road are now nothing but dust or buried beneath the hideous tower dwellings of Russian invaders

Huh, I always thought of the Mongols as the primary destroyers of Asian cities and cultures.

>>2317548
But long-distance overland shipping is inherently inefficient. It's not about infrastructure so much as physics. Moving lots of heavy stuff takes way less energy when you're travelling over water.

>>2317612
He was referring to the Soviets I expect. Lots of old cities like Samarkand were built over by the Soviets with shitty architecture.

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>>2317612
They did.
But at least under Timurlan the core of their empire was in central asia as well and he rebuild some of their largest cities again in even greater splendor.

>>2317223
breh you probably wouldn't have gone on the whole route.

You would have specialized in buying/selling along one particular shorter route that you had experience on.

Hard to say though, but I can't imagine one person doing a huge stretch would be economically efficient.