In Merv, the two branches rejoined and headed westward to Qumis, Seleucia, and finally Dura-Europos. The southern branch connects Balch to Merv, while the northern branch is from Kashgar to Koland, Samarkand, and reaches Merv. It started from the ancient capital of China - Chang'an (Xi'an), and later it was moved further east to Luoyang. Then, the route stretches through the Chinese province of Gansu along the Hexi corridor and split into three further routes, two of them split at Dunhuang bypassing the Taklamakan Desert to rejoin at Kashgar, and the other going north of the Tianshan mountains through Anxi, Turpan, Yining and met the Dunhuang-Kashagar routes at Koland. Silk Road Map (Click to Enlarge) Northern Route The maritime silk road was formed as early as the Qin and Han Dynasties, developed in the Three Kingdoms and Sui dynasties, and became more and more prosperous in the Tang and Song dynasties. The route of the maritime silk road is centered on the South China Sea. In a narrow sense, the silk road often refers to the land silk road. Generally speaking, the silk road includes two, one is the Land Silk Road and the other is the Maritime Silk Road. While the northern route moved through Turpan, Talgar, and Almaty, turned northwest past the Aral Sea and north of the Caspian Sea, then and on to the Black Sea and got to Constantinople. The southern and middle route rejoined at Kashgar, then passed through Pamir Plateau and north of Aral Sea, reached Baghdad and Damascus, moved northwestwards, finally ended at Constantinople. It moved westwards, via the Hexi Corridor(Wuwei, Zhangye, Dunhuang, Jiuquan.), and divided into northern, middle, and southern routes. Stretching about 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers), the Silk Road started from the ancient great China capital city Chang’an(today’s Xi’an), and later from Luoyang during the East Han Dynasty. Now the silk road has become a world heritage site. It is the formation of this channel that made an important contribution to the earliest international trades. It is an important commercial and trade channel connecting the hinterland of China and, Asian and European countries. However, from Dunhuang, it is divided into two routes: the two routes start from Dunhuang, bypassing the Taklamakan Desert and Lop Nur northward and southward, finally rejoin at the terminal Rome. The route of the land silk road takes Chang'an (now called Xi’an) in the Western Han Dynasty as the starting point of the whole route, passes through the Hexi Corridor, and then reaches the famous Dunhuang.
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