The route was first developed by the Han dynasty in the latter part of the 1st century BC to secure diplomatic alliance against the Xiongnu confederacy, with whom China had been having escalating conflicts, and was progressively transformed into a major trade route during the subsequent dynasties to project Chinese influence towards the west.
The route travels northwest through the Chinese province of Gansu from Shaanxi Province, and splits into three further routes, two of them following the mountain ranges to the north and south of the Taklimakan Desert to rejoin at Kashgar; and the other going north of the Tian Shan mountains through Turpan, Talgar and Almaty (in what is now southeast Kazakhstan).
The routes split west of Kashgar with one branch heading down the Alay Valley towards Termez and Balkh, while the other traveled through Kokand in the Fergana Valley, and then west across the Karakum Desert towards Merv, joining the southern route briefly.
One of the branch routes turned northwest to the north of the Aral and Caspian seas and then on to the Black Sea.
Culture exchange
The Silk Road served not just as a means of trading goods, but also as an environment for cultural exchange. The Silk Road directed the flow of cultures, religions, and ideas, creating a rich tapestry of variety throughout Eurasia. Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and other religions thrived and expanded along these ancient trade routes, leaving lasting legacy in massive monuments such as China's Mogao Caves, Xi'an's Nestorian Stele, and Iraq's great mosque of Samarra. The civilizations and people that lived along the Silk Roads evolved and advanced as they traded and shared ideas, They learned and adapted from one another, promoting further breakthroughs in the fields of religion, language, and science.
The Northern Silk Road had a key role in promoting cultural and religious interchange among many governments and people. There were other faiths introduced through cultural exchange, but the three most popular were referred to as “The three alien religious”.[2] Even though there was a lot of political friction at the time, cultural contact continued and expanded, resulting in a very large and rich trade between the west and east we witness today. For example, during the Sui and Tang periods of the Northern dynasties, there were good and strong diplomatic relations with the Sasanian Empire of Persia, which resulted in the spread of Zoroastrianism, Jingjia “The Church of the East”,[3] and Manichaeism religions . The cultural fusion between Persia and China is only one of several cultural contacts that occur along the Northern route.
Another cultural interchange between Persia and China is Tang artisans in China employing Persian patterns in their works, which is a really beautiful approach to integrate different cultures through pattern design, which attracted the creative eye of the Tang crafters. The skills exchange also included a navigation log, which aided in road navigation and military strategy. The skill exchange occurred when Yang Liangyao, a diplomat of the Tang era, visited the Abbasid Caliphate.[4] His visit resulted in a very valuable and important cultural exchange in which he was introduced to a complete navigation diary of the Silk Road to the Tang court, which was very useful for him and significant because there was a military conflict between Tibet and the Tang,[5] making overland travel difficult.
