Marco Polo and the Silk Road

What was the Silk Road?

The Silk Road was not actually one road. It was a series of trade routes that stretched from China in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. At the height of its activity (during the European medieval period), the Silk Road measured 4,000 miles long. Traders and merchants rarely traveled the entire distance, but moved in stages with people from central Asia serving as middlemen. One of its most famous travelers was the Italian explorer, Marco Polo.