What is the Silk Route?

The first explorers who travelled the Silk Route found it a difficult and hazardous journey, across the mountains, deserts and steppes of Central Asia. There are many different routes, skirting a variety of countries and these all came to be used to transport goods, both to the east and the west.  The eastern starting point was the Chinese city of Xi’an, and various routes continued as far as Turkey, Greece and Italy.