Whether or not the term Silk Roads is a myth or a handy catch-all for a dauntingly wide geographical network spanning mountain chains, deserts, cities and seas, the idea of it still entices travellers. There are countless extraordinary places to explore along its various strands from Asia to Europe, and these 10 choices represent only a handful of highlights.
There were as many Silk Road threads passing through war-torn lands centuries ago as there are today. Some of these destinations are currently off the traveller’s map for ethical or safety reasons, but given their historical importance it would be wrong to leave them off the list.
Old City of Damascus, Syria
Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, a place of living antiquity that has drawn invaders – among them the Greeks, the Abbasids and the Seljuk Turks – and curious travellers for centuries. The city’s craft industry was famed for its decorated swords and lace, and while Damask silk originated in China it takes its name from the trading city of Damascus. One of the most arresting sights is the Umayyad mosque (pictured), also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus, a gem of the early Islamic world dating to the period when the Umayyads established their capital in Damascus in 661. After the start of the Syrian civil war the ancient city of Damascus was added to Unesco’s list of world heritage in danger in 2013.
İshak Pasha Palace, Turkey
Set on a lonely rock, close to the town of Doğubayazıt in eastern Turkey, is the strikingly photogenic İshak Pasha Palace, with its dramatic stone-domed mosque and minaret boasting Ottoman, Persian and Seljuk influences. Commissioned by the family of İshak Pasha, who was vizier of the area, it was completed after the Silk Roads era in 1784, though its lofty position was strategic, overlooking the entire valley, which is crisscrossed with old Silk Roads pathways leading to Georgia and Iran and the caravan route from Tabriz to the Black Sea ports. The road to the palace also passes the ancient Bayazit Castle, a fortress in the shadows of Mount Ararat, where merchants travelling the Silk Roads would stop and store their goods.
Selim Caravanserai, Armenia
Sometimes called Orbelian’s Caravanserai, after the noble family who built it, this is an ancient inn or hostel for merchants completed in 1332 and located by the remote Selim Pass in southern Armenia. It is a long, low-slung and dimly lit building, with just one entrance (a useful barrier against thieves and bitter winters) and it doesn’t take too much imagination, as you enter through a doorway decorated with a bull and a lion, to picture merchants of old gathered in one arched section, their animals in another with their basalt feeding troughs. The caravanserai sits on an ancient international trade passage connecting to bordering Iran, though for modern-day travellers it is handily on one of the Trans-Caucasian Trail walking routes. You can drive up to it, too.
Uplistsikhe, Georgia
To see this once-thriving trading town, one of the oldest known settlements in the Caucasus, head east from the Georgian city of Gori, the birthplace of Stalin, to honeycomb-coloured Uplistsikhe where strands of the Silk Roads once ran close by. From the sixth century BC, Uplistsikhe, built high on the rocky bank of the Mtkvari River, developed into a religious centre and metropolis that was slowly hewn from solid stone. What is left today are the remains of the inner city, where once 20,000 people lived with a market, temples, palaces, winery, bakery and sewers. Given the foundations that remain, it is surprisingly easy to imagine the daily life of its citizens. The rest of ancient Uplistsikhe was flattened by the Mongols in the 13th century.
Tabriz, Iran
A network of interconnected bazaars stretching over at least 100 hectares (250 acres), the Unesco-listed Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex is set in handsome domed halls and under fine brick vaulting with sections selling leather, silver, copper, spices and, of course, rugs. With its origins dating to the 10th century, it was one of the most important commercial centres on the Silk Roads thanks to its strategic location and policies of tax exemptions, though it was also known as a place of social gatherings and education. Today, it remains a living example of Silk Roads culture where craftspeople, artists, tobacconists, tailors, calligraphers and bookbinders from different cultures mix and trade in its laneways.
Merv, Turkmenistan
With its fortifications, mosques and mausoleums, the ancient city of Merv, in Turkmenistan’s Mary region, has been home to human settlements since the bronze age; some historians have suggested that by the 10th century it was the third largest city in the world. But that isn’t all. It was also once one of the most important cities in the Islamic world, attracting traders, scholars and travellers from distant regions, and today it is considered one of the oldest and best-preserved of the oasis-cities on central Asia’s Silk Roads. A particularly eye-catching sight is the recently restored 12th-century Sultan Sanjar Mausoleum, a rare example of Seljuk commemorative architecture. The Mary regional museum, with its Seljuk bronze-ware and Mongol ceramics, is also recommended.
Termez, Uzbekistan
Close to Afghanistan, Termez is the southernmost city of Uzbekistan, set on the ancient Amu Darya (Oxus) River. It became an important commercial centre under the ancient Kushan Empire, stretching from northern India to Afghanistan and parts of central Asia, which promoted trade not only of goods but, in classic Silk Roads style, also craftsmanship, ideas and religious renaissance. Today Termez attracts small numbers of Silk Roads enthusiasts who arrive for the ancient Buddhist sites on the outskirts of town. Fayoz-Tepe is the most visited, a Buddhist monastery complex, that appears a little like a Star Wars film set, with its sand-coloured dome the size and shape of an igloo. Surrounding the platform lay fragmented foundations of former meditation halls, kitchens, sleeping cells and ancient water pipes that drew from the nearby river. The city also has a good museum for context.
Taxila, Pakistan
Easily reachable by car from Islamabad (though Alexander the Great took the long road to get here), Taxila is a Unesco world heritage site and a true archaeological wonder. Situated at a Silk Roads crossroads, the “City of Cut Stone” was one of the ancient capitals of Gandhara, a territory stretching between the Oxus and Indus rivers. Among the vast site today is a Mesolithic cave and, most crucially, Buddhist monuments and the remains of monasteries dotted through the Taxila valley, evidence of how it was once a religious heartland and a destination for pilgrims and monks who had travelled from China and central Asia. The city’s museum, close to the excavations, is home to at least 2,000 priceless objects.
Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan
Ringed by mountains, sea buckthorn bushes and Soviet-era sanatoriums once popular with commissars and cosmonauts, Lake Issyk-Kul is where Kazakhs, Russians and Kyrgyz go to sunbathe and swim in the summer. A branch of the Silk Roads once ran from the lake, known as the “pearl of Kyrgyzstan”, across the border to Kashgar in Xinjiang, China, homeland of the Muslim Uyghurs. For more than 2,000 years Kashgar was a hub of regional trade and cultural exchange, full of teahouses, mosques and marketplaces. Today, much of old Kashgar, as with other Uyghur towns and cities, has been demolished or irrecoverably altered by Beijing as the brutal crackdown against the Uyghur people continues.
Dunhuang, China
Dunhuang is an oasis city and pilgrimage site in north-west China that is home to the magnificent Mogao grottoes. One of the most important collections of Buddhist art in the world, housed in cells and sanctuaries lining a cliff face above the Dachuan River, the wall paintings tell an illustrated story of the Silk Roads from the fourth to the 14th centuries. Almost 500 caves have been preserved, housing countless murals and more than 2,000 painted sculptures. Cave 302 from the Sui dynasty period contains a particularly classic Silk Roads scene: a two-humped Bactrian camel pulling a wagon with a merchant inside.
Caroline Eden’s latest book is Cold Kitchen: a Year of Culinary Journeys (Bloomsbury, £18.99). To buy a copy for £17.09 go to guardianbookshop.com
• The picture of the lake in Kyrgyzstan was changed on 27 October 2024 because an earlier version was one of Lake Ala-Kul, rather than of Lake Issyk-Kul.
