The Silk Road was a network of trade routes used to connect the ancient empires in China and the Far East with Asia, the Middle East and Europe, linking the regions of the ancient world and was central to the economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between these regions from the 2nd century BCE to the 18th century. It included a large network of strategically located trading posts, markets and thoroughfares designed to streamline the transport, exchange, distribution and storage of goods; besides this commerce importance, it had great impact on the development of world civilization.
According to the maps, the Silk Road, actually a caravan tract, started from China and continued following the Great Wall to the northwest, then passed through central Asia and reached Iran, from here the road was furcated to go either to Armenia or Syria, and finally reached Rome and Greece. When it entered Iran, it passed the northern part and went to Yerevan or to the harbors of Syria to cross the Mediterranean Sea and reach Europe.
The east-west trade routes between Rome and China in the two ends began to open during the first and second centuries B.C. The Greek, Indian and Persian Empires also benefitted from the commerce created by the route along the Silk Road.
Persian Royal Road
The Persian Royal Road, which would come to serve as one of the main arteries of the Silk Road, was established by the Persian ruler Darius I during the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE). It ran from Susa (in present-day Iran) to Sardis in the Mediterranean Sea in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and featured postal stations along the route with fresh horses for envoys to quickly deliver messages throughout the empire.
The Persians maintained the Royal Road carefully and, in time, expanded it through smaller side roads in order to have rapid access to the furthest end of the empire. These paths eventually crossed down into the Indian sub-continent, across Mesopotamia, and over northern Africa into Egypt.
Iran Silk Road
Iran, or so-called Great Persia at the time, was a major actor in the trading route. A main part of the Silk Road passed through Iran so it was a connecting point between Rome and China to play a major role as a corridor between the two great civilizations.
Having to travel by camel and horses, only quite a few merchants would travel all the way from the Mediterranean to China and get back. The journey would be a very long one and there were many dangers. Many would travel short distances to the next market and exchange their goods and went back, so goods were handled in a staggered progression by middlemen. That is why Iran’s location was substantial on the trade routes.
The merchants had to travel in groups, called Caravan, and needed to stay somewhere safe, like Caravanserai. “Caravan” in Persian means a group of travelers and “Sara” is house. You might be surprised to see so many active caravanserais, along the main roads in Iran. Some of them are still functional so it is possible to stay in those historical caravanserais and rest as the merchants did.
Sassanid Empire (224 – 651 AD) made use of the Silk Road and gained their main wealth by exchanging products through the Road. Receiving customs duties and taxes from caravans was very important for them because it was the largest source of income. But the Silk Road’s flourishing time in Iran was during the Safavids (1501–1722 AD), who built caravanserais in almost all the cities along the road. Safavid kings directly supervised the quality and the safety of caravan roads and also founded facilities such as bazars, mosques and hammams in many cities. A number of 999 caravanserais is given to be built by Safavids and a dynasty following them, Gajar (1795– 1925 AD).
The major routes across Iran developed basically by the beginning of the 1st century AD. A branch of “Royal Road” started in Herat (now in Afghanistan) and led northward to Merv and further to Samarkand where it possibly merged with the Silk Road from China across the oases of Eastern Turkestan; the area of Asia Minor and Syria was connected with the Silk Road by overland road leading along the Euphrates to the harbors of the Persian Gulf, or by ancient caravan route from Syria across Iran.
Silk Road in Iran consisted of six routes, five inland and one sea lane as following:
North- east route: from Turkmenistan the road entered Toos, Neyshabur, Sabzevar, Shahroud, Damghan, Semnan and the ancient city of Rey.
Gonbad-e Qābus, a world heritage site, is in this route.
North- west route: from Rey, a junction city, the route went to Qazvin, Zanjan, Ardabil, Sarab, Tabriz, Marand and Khoy and out of the country into Azerbaijan and Armenia,
Southern Azerbaijan in Iran together with Northern Azerbaijan, the territory of present Azerbaijan Republic, used to occupy the huge territory of historical Azerbaijan and had an extremely advantageous position between Asia and Europe, between the Mediterranean, the Caspian, the Black and the Azov seas playing an important role in international trade. That is why Iranian provinces of Southern Azerbaijan are rather rich in monuments of the Silk Road period.
The dome of Soltaniyeh, Sheikh Safi al-din khānegāh and shrine ensemble in Ardabil, Tabriz historic Bazaar complex, Takht-e Soleyman, and Armenian monastic ensembles are UNESCO world heritage sites in this route.
West route: from Qazvin, a city in north- west route, the route derived to (Hegmataneh) Hamedan and Kermanshah then out of the country to Iraq and Syria to reach Ctesiphon, Seleucia, the Greco-Roman metropolis of Antioch and Palmyra, another branch went to Susa (Shush) to connect to Shiraz.
UNESCO world heritage sites in this route are Bisotun, Tchogha Zanbil, Susa and Shushtar historical hydraulic system.
Central and south route: again from Rey another route got divided to Kashan, Isfahan, Shiraz, Yazd and Kerman, what is known as the classic route now, boasting to host the largest number of inscribed sites on the World Heritage list. This route reached to functional ports of the time, Siraf and Gambron (later Bandar-e Abbas) and Bushehr.
UNESCO world heritage sites in this route include Naqsh-e Jahan Square and Masjed-e Jāmé of Isfahan, Pasargadae, Persepolis, the ensemble of historical Sassanian cities in Fars province (Bishabpur, Firouzabad, Sarvestan), historic city of Yazd, cultural landscape of Maymand and Golestan palace in Tehran.
The Venetian explorer, Marco Polo (1254-1324 CE), traveled on these route and especially described Yazd and Kerman in his book.
East rout: from Toos in north- east route a branch went to Birjand, Zabol, Bam and Chabahar port in the coast of Persian Gulf.
Shahr-e Sukhteh, Bam and its cultural landscape, and Lut Desert are UNESCO world heritage sites in this route.
Sea lane: While major routes were inland, there were important sea lanes in use as well. Persia was playing a major role because the Silk Road routes also led to ports on the Persian Gulf and the ships were traveling between China, India and Iran, so goods were offloaded at ancient Persian port of Siraf. From Siraf the goods were transported to different directions, towards important capitals and trading cities such as Persepolis, Susa, Babylon, Merv and Bukhara or they were transported up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The ancient port of Siraf is now on the tentative list of UNESCO.
Even though the modern territory of Iran is only a part of what used to be the vast ancient empires, it still has a number of monuments connected with that international artery. According to the WTO and UNESCO most of the Silk Road monuments, mainly caravanserais in fact, have survived in the Iranian provinces of Southern Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan, Qazvin, Semnan, Teheran, Golestan and Khurasan which used to stand on the Silk Road.