Silk Road Virtual Tour

this is a virtual tour of the Silk Road with Professor Clayton Brown as you can see from this map the Silk Road extended from Rome in the west to Shion ancient capital of China in the east in 221 BC the Chin Dynasty Consolidated China's many Waring kingdoms into a single massive Empire about the same time the conquests of Alexander the Great linked societies from Europe to India widening existing trade routes and forging new ones over the next several centuries what developed was a complex Trade Network that spanned the Eurasian continent drawing from China silk but also tea porcelain and Jade while gold silver fine glassware and wine departed from Rome along the way oils salts carpets incense and perfumes were picked up in the Middle East while India yielded Jewels spices Ivory sandalwood and cotton as we'll see the route was 5,000 Mi long and treacherous but but so lucrative that it lasted over a thousand years most importantly the links that it fors were not only commercial but cultural the Silk Road shaped every society within its vast Network Rome was the Western Terminus of the Silk Road beginning in the 1st Century BC so we'll start our tour at the Coliseum the Greeks and Romans used huge quantities of inscense to worship their gods and so to serve that demand trade emerged early on that passed through the Arabian pen Pula called the spice Road where frankincense myrr and other exotic perfumes and oils were exchanged for copper tin iron gems and textiles spices came from as far away as India and when the Romans acquired a taste for luxurious silk the spice Road expanded Eastward into China and became the Silk Road this is a Roman Mosaic depicting a musician playing a pipe and a dancing girl wearing sheer silk robes our word silk comes from the Latin word series which is what the Romans called the people of China although the 13th century Italian Merchant Marco Polo supposedly traveled the Silk Road to China where he lived for 17 years serving kubl Khan's Court few Romans actually made the Trek to China and few Chinese came to Europe instead trade relied on a series of middlemen who each took their cut so that by the time the silk reached Rome it was literally worth its weight in gold Chinese silk became so popular that the Roman emperors instituted sary laws that forbade commoners from wearing silk only Nobles could wear this fine garment as a distinction of their higher status departing Rome our first stop over as we follow the Silk Road is a famous site called Petra in the Middle East we call this region the Middle East because it served as the middle ground between Rome and China in the far east as trade along the Silk Road grew new commercial hubs emerged at strategic locations along the Route the most famous of these Caravan cities is Petra capital of the ancient naban Kingdom 20 years ago but today its ruins lie within the country of Jordan at its height Petra's population of 30,000 played host to camel Caravans bearing silks perfumes and spices from far away although today most of the city lies buried beneath the sand many palaces temples and tombs carved into the Sandstone Cliffs remain this is alaz or the treasury a 12-story facade that was probably originally a temple the word Petra comes from the Greek for stone and is related to our word petrify due to Alexander the Great's conquests which paved the way for the Silk Road many of these cities used Greek as the common language a Common Language facilitated trade since those who traversed the Silk Road came from many lands and spoke many different languages alaz Li is directly opposite the seek a narrow but 250t tall natural Canyon that restricted access to the city and thus provided some protection if you've seen Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade the film was shot on location at Petra although of course the events in the film are fictionalized they basically used the actual sight of Petra as a prop a Petra was gradually eclipsed by an oasis town to the north in the Syrian desert known as Palmyra as people and money flowed through this city it grew to become a major stopover along the Silk Road by the 3rd Century ad Palmyra had become one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire with as many as 200,000 residents to serve palmyra's Cosmopolitan Community the city featured enormous Limestone monuments common under the helenistic age such as temples to the various religions like the one that you see here Roman urbanization projects also were responsible for the colon streets down palmyra's Main thoroughfare and you can see what remains of them here following this Main Street then you'll be able to see an open air Marketplace the now empty Square on the left side and to the right a Greek style Amphitheater which is the half circle the Coliseum was essentially two Greek ampath back to back in a full circle there were also banqueting halls and public baths all in the Greek or helenistic style here's a 360 view of the Palmyra Amphitheater and the ruins out in the background Islam would later come to dominate this region and as trade along the Silk Road waned in the second Millennium so too did the once thriving Oasis town of Palmyra in the 17th century a castle or Citadel was constructed on the town's outskirts that today overlooks the ruins of Roman Palmyra located in today's northern Afghanistan the city of baman was the last major stop for Caravans before setting out to cross the inhospitable Central Asian mountains and deserts at places like baman and bactria helenistic culture and language reached its easternmost point and Traders were confronted with a mix of Greek Chinese Indian Persian and Nomad cultures found nowhere else in the world pictured is the great Buddha of baman destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 departing the city these giant Buddhist statues garbed in Greco Roman style toas baade Travelers for a well and it was to these gods that Traders would offer prayers for safe passage they would need it Caravans then funneled through the treacherous Korum pass a narrow Gateway in the westernmost extension of the himan range the caror mountain hold the world's largest glacier outside of the poles and K2 the world's second highest peak today the pass is home to the world's highest elevation International Highway the karakorum highway which follows roughly the same route traversed by these ancient Traders the nomadic Warriors of Central Asia such as the kusan maintained the passage and protected Caravans passing through their territory for a fee of course moving through the car Corum pass Caravans would meet the tlam Maan desert that fills the tarim Basin the tlam Maan is a cold desert reaching at most 100° F in the summer but nights are very cold with temperatures below zero in the winter Caravans would skirt the desert hugging the foot of the pamir and tienshan ranges and moving from Oasis town to Oasis town you can still see the remnants of these Oasis communities sandwiched between the mountains and the desert if you look for the Blue Lake surrounded by lush green vet vation in the Heyday of the Silk Road these towns thrived with ins restaurants administrative buildings Buddhist temples and monasteries residences and even large Estates with fruit orchards but after about a millennium the Silk Road was abandoned taklamakan in fact means abandoned place or place of ruins according to local lore sandstorms swept in from the desert and buried these towns in a matter of minutes and over the past Century archaeologists have indeed discovered temples and homes that have been buried under the sand for Millennia along with long-lost Buddhist scriptures early Buddhist artworks bearing both Greek and Chinese influence bricks of dried tea that never made it to Europe and even the remnants of grape Vineyards and Peach [Music] Orchards the Taran Basin was China's western frontier during the tong Dynasty moving Eastward Caravans would pass through yongan Chinese for Jade gate pass which was originally a guarded Outpost along the Great Wall constructed to oversee trade while keeping out the barbaric Huns and other Waring Nomads today from a top this pass one can still see relics of the great wall and Beacon Towers peeking out of the desert sands on the horizon Jade gate marked one's passage from the frontier into China proper it got its name from the highquality Jade mined in the frontier and transported into China via this route but of course silk and other items made the journey through this pass going both directions pictured as a Chinese jade B disc used for ceremonial purposes such discs were used since prehistoric times and could be tiny to several feet in diameter and several inches thick the Chinese still highly prize Jade as Merchants passed through the Middle East and India on their way to China they brought with them their religions first Buddhism later Islam so Buddhism was first established in the deserts of western China in oases like this one at dunong this is Crescent Lake near Ming shashan or singing Sands Mountain named for the sound of wind whipping sand across the dunes it's all part of the town of dunong a frontier Garrison that became home to an early Chinese Buddhist Monastery supported by a large community of Believers for over a thousand years dun hang preserved some of the finest examples of Buddhist art and scripture beginning in the 4th Century local patrons dug out hundreds of cave temples in The Cliff face each housing statues and colorful murals it's known in Chinese as Chen fuong caves of a thousand Buddhas when entering these caves visitors are still greeted by Buddhist art that dates back as early as the 4th Century from large statues to frescos to small Buddha icons patrons would come here to give their devotions saying prayers and walking in circles following the karmic wheel the more wealthy would commission larger images common people would have a small Buddha inscribed on a wall with their name and monks and nuns would copy sutas all of which would generate good karma in the early 20th century a hidden chamber was discovered at dun hang where it seems that Buddhist monks fearing the threat of Destruction from Muslims piled thousands of Scrolls and then sealed up the secret room these records now provide some of the richest information on the history of Buddhism we're now heading to Roan Tower at jaug Guan pass jauan means pass through the excellent Valley it's the westernmost extension of China's Great Wall for this reason it was known to the Chinese as the first pass under Heaven all under heaven was a phrase referring to China so the first pass under Heaven meant the first pass Chinese Travelers encountered that marked their return back into Chinese territory conversely xan had a more Sinister reputation as the final gate that any Chinese who had been banished from the realm was ordered to pass through when they were exiled Beyond the Wall to live among the Western [Music] barbarians the city of Xian was China's capital in the chin and Han dynasties roughly at the time of the Greeks and Romans as the Silk Road reached its height during the tong Dynasty it transmitted not only silk and other precious Goods but also art and religion first Buddhism from India later Islam from the Middle East from China's historic capital of xan Buddhism and other influences would extend into Korea Vietnam and Japan at the seven-story big wild goose pagota in the city's main Buddhist temple the famous monk shenzong deposited sutras or scriptures he had retrieved from India the city itself housed foreign residents of all kinds Traders mostly Turkish speaking peoples but also Christians escaping persecution under the Romans a small Jewish Enclave with a synagogue and then Muslims who built China's first mosque note the Arabic on the top of this Arch today the great Mosque of xion and the big wild goose pagota still stand in the modern city emblems of China's great Cosmopolitan age so although formidable mountain ranges deserts and oceans separated these Civilizations for a thousand years the Silk Road was the artery that connected the Roman and Chinese Empires and brought into that circuit key communities throughout the Middle East and India each shaping the others economically and culturally

Channel: Clayton Brown

Views: 179,331

Keywords: Silk Road virtual tour

Id: 56IzyMfLJFA

Length: 14min 35sec (875 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 19 2014