The Silk Road: The First Global Highway (Special Interest Day)
Wed 19 Mar
|Widcombe Social Club
This Special Interest Day will consist of three talks about the Silk Road, a melting pot of religions, science and the creative arts for over 3,000 years.
Time & Location
19 Mar 2025, 10:30 – 15:30
Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath BA2 6AA, UK
About the Event
Lecturer Diana Driscoll
Location Widcombe Social Club
Stretching from China to the Mediterranean, from Russia to Iran from Central Asia to India, the Silk Road was a melting pot of religions, science and the creative arts for over 3,000 years. To discover more, this Special Interest Day will consist of three talks:
The Traders: From the Parthians of Persia in 2nd century BC, hated by the Romans, to the Sogdians of the 7th and 8th centuries, the most important caravan merchants.
The Silk Road Cities: Bukhara, a centre of religious scholarship; Samarkand, built by Tamerlaine’s artisans; and 19th century Khiva, today a UNESCO world Heritage site.
The End of a Golden Era: What role did the Mongolian ruler Kublai Khan Marco Polo and the Ming Dynasty play in the trade. Why did it end?