Silk Road: Books

Contains essays and illustrations which explore aspects of the history and contemporary status of the Silk Road.

A variety of sources, including an ancient wall and poetry, construct a history of those who shaped the ancient Chinese world.

Contains 5 essays and 130 entries from an exhibition of 180 objects from China on themes of the Silk Road.

The early trade in silk was carried on against incredible odds by great caravans of merchants and animals traveling over some of the most inhospitable territory on earth. Beginning at the magnificent ancient Chinese city of Chang'an (Xi'an), the route took traders westward along the Hexi Corridor to the giant barrier of the Great Wall, then either north or south of the Taklamakan Desert to Kashgar before continuing onto India and Iran, or farther to the great cities of Constantinople, Damascus and Baghdad.

Numerous photographs and descriptive text present a portrait of the geographic and cultural diversity of modern-day China.

An illustrated look at the life of the Venetian explorer, Marco Polo, including his childhood and his travels along the Silk Road to the court of Kublai Khan in China in the thirteenth-century.