Cities along the Silk Road

The Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes that connected many communities of Eurasia by land and sea, stretching from the Mediterranean basin in the west to the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago in the east.

It came into existence in the 2nd century BCE, when Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty was in power, and lasted until the 15th century CE, when the Ottoman Empire closed off the trade routes with Europe after it captured Constantinople and thereby conquered the Byzantine Empire.

This article lists the cities along the Silk Road, sorted by region and the modern-day countries in which they lie.

Major cities, broadly from the Eastern Mediterranean to South Asia, and arranged roughly west to east in each area.

Some of the cities provided by Ptolemy either: no longer exist today or have moved to different locations.