The Great Silk Road

"The Great Silk Road" is the popular name given to the system of caravan trade routes, which lasted for approximately 15 centuries and linked Eastern and Western civilizations from ancient times into the Middle Ages.

The main route of the Great Silk Road passed through China along the Gan-Su corridor then through the Tarima basin, and the highlands of the Pamir and Tien-Shan ranges and on to Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean, from there linking with major trading centres of the Near East, North Africa, and Europe.It is known that the Great Silk Road functioned as a route from China to the capital of the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BC and it may have been operating even before this. It was about seven thousand kilometers long. The most valuable commodity imported from China was silk, which is an obvious explanation why this entire transcontinental trade route was named The Silk Road.

The Great Silk Road is, in fact, not a road at all but a network of the routes from East to West, which played a highly significant role in the lives of many people in Eurasia. It was an important artery in the Ancient and Middle Ages, a source of merchandise and information, and the starting point of many conflicts and wars. Along this route came into existence, and then into decline, many nations and cultures, great powers, trading centres, and capitals of many of the former empires of the world which sprang up, flourished and gained fame, and then decayed and declined.

The geographical location of Kyrgyzstan gives it an important position on The Great Silk Road. In the 2nd century BC, numerous and systematic efforts were made to cross the Tien-Shan-Pamir Barrier. Some even argue that this section of the Road actually operated as early as the 4th century BC. In any case, the territory and nations of the ancient Tien-Shan were right in the middle of the process of the formation of this vast economic and cultural phenomenon.Many of the caravan routes of The Great Silk Road changed their routes and intermediate destinations depending on various factors such as climate and politics, observing only  the main directions from East to West and back again. But in the Kyrgyz region the routes stayed as they were for many hundreds of years, because of the close proximity of the Tien-Shan and Pamir mountains with their highly constraining geographical factors. From the very beginning, three branches of The Great Silk Road ran through Kyrgyzstan.

The first, the Southern branch, ran from Termez via Samarkand to Dushanbe's present location, along a tributary of Kyzyl-Suu up to the Alai and exited to the area of modern Irkeshtam on the Chinese border where it continued eastwards towards Kashgar.

The second, the Fergana branch, led from Samarkand via Hojent to Isfara, Kokand and Osh. There are indications that the Takt-I-Suleiman of Osh was the tower and the main signpost of the Silk Road which was described by Protemeus long before it became a major focal point of the Muslim world. Osh was a major intermediate trading city from which caravans proceeded further to Kashgar across the Torugart range.

The third, Northern branch came from Zamin Rabat to Benket (Tashkent), Isfidjab (Chimkent), Taraz (Jambul), Nuzket (Kara-Balta, just to the east of Bishkek), and Balasugun (Burana). From there caravans traveled along the Boom Canyon to get to the Issyk-Kul area and further to China across the San-Tash range.

The caravan traffic proceeded at a slow pace. A good day's journey covered 8 farsahs (50 km), a not so good one 4 farsahs (25 km). The composition of the caravan trains varied. There are numerous records of some huge trains containing up to 10,000 beasts of burden. All along the route, caravan-sarais (overnight halts and meeting places) appeared at regular intervals and torrential streams were tamed with bridges.

Because the international route opened up access to new places within Kyrgyzstan, settled crop production began, alongside the ancient traditional way of life of nomadic livestock breeding. This occurred in the valleys of Talas, Chu, Issyk-Kul and in Central Tien-Shan. Thus medieval Kyrgyzstan, its territory transected by the three branches of the Great Silk Road, came to be one of the cultural centers of the ancient Turkic nations. It is not by chance that out of the whole of the huge Turkic world, which stretched from Baikal to the Black Sea area and from the taiga to the Great Wall of China, it was in Tien-Shan that the first Turkic money appeared, and the poet Balasugun created the Turkic poem of Kutagdu Bilim.

Osh, the main city in the south of modern Kyrgyzstan, maintained a prominent position on the Great Silk Road . For many centuries, because of its unique location, it was a transit point on the Fergana branch of the Silk Road. Local inhabitants provided services to travelers and traders' caravans. As a convenient place to trade and exchange goods, Osh attracted traders, craftsmen, livestock breeders, and crop producers. In the muslim era the surroundings of the holy mountain of Suleiman with its mosques and the tombs of the righteous, was a place where up to 10,000 people might convene at any one time. At present, there is still a Muslim pilgrimage to the holy mountain. In the unique complex built inside the mountain caves there is a history and land museum, with 13 exhibition halls. The Suleiman Mountain also has observation platforms from which one can enjoy a panoramic view of the city. Three thousand years old, Osh is considered to be one of the most interesting archeological and historical monuments of past epochs.