The Silk Road, or more correctly Silk Roads are a network of trade routes connecting various parts of Eurasia since ancient times. However, the name “Silk Road” is a relatively recent invention, coined by German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in the 1870’s (in German: Seidenstraße). Nevertheless, translations of the name were successfully popularized in non-European languages as well, such as e.g. sichou zhi lu 丝绸之路 (“The Road of Silk”) in Chinese.
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An outline of the continental and maritime Silk Roads:
