What was the silk road?

The Silk Road or Silk Route was an ancient network of trade routes that were for centuries central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the East and West and stretching from the Korean peninsula and Japan to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Silk Road was an ancient road that stretched through Asia and the Middle East, where fine goods were traded from one person to another. It opened during the Han dynasty (130 bce), but was closed in 1453 ce, when the Ottoman empire boycotted trade with the west and shut down the routes.