The Ancient World · event 5 of 11

c. 130 BC

The Silk Roads open. Han dynasty envoys establish contact westward and a network of overland routes begins moving silk, horses, ideas, religions and disease between China, Central Asia, Persia and eventually Rome. It operates for well over a thousand years.

The The Ancient World era

  1. c. 3000 BC
  2. c. 1500 BC
  3. c. 776 BC
  4. c. 440 BC
  5. c. 130 BC
  6. c. 100 AD
  7. c. 150 AD
  8. 326 AD
  9. c. 630 AD
  10. 632 AD
  11. c. 1000

See the full timeline or read the short history of travel.