Tourism through the Ages - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 32

The Silk Road

In 1889, Rudyard Kipling penned the oft-quoted line East is East and West is West and never the

twain shall meet.'' Actually, East and West had already met more than 2,000 years earlier on the now-
fabled Silk Road .
Indeed, it is a misnomer even to call it a road. From the beginning, some Silk Route sections were
mere directions across trackless steppe or desert rather than visible paths:

''

the majority of states on
the Silk Routes traded with their nearer neighbors, and travelers were like participants in a relay race
stretching a third of the way around the world.

''

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''

Marco Polo, who traveled to China from Italy in the thirteenth century, became the rst Western
explorer to compose a popular and lasting account. Though his chronicle is probably more fiction than
history, since it draws from the tales of many traders, his observations often ring true. In spite of
omissions and exaggerations, his book has remained an international bestseller. 15
Just as the Silk Road was not a road, so silk was but a part of the trade. Westbound caravans carried
furs, ceramics, spices, the day lily for its medicinal uses, peaches, apricots, and even rhubarb. 16
Eastbound ones carried precious metals and gems, ivory, glass, perfumes, dyes, textiles, as well as the
grapevine, alfalfa, chives, coriander, sesame, cucumbers, figs, and saf ower. 17
For protection against marauders, merchants formed caravans of up to 1,000 camels, protected by
armed escorts. Each two-humped Bactrian camel could carry 400 to 500 pounds of merchandise. The
long routewas divided into areas of political and economic in uence.

The Chinese traders escorted their
merchandise as far as Dunhuang or beyond the Great Wall to Loulan where it was sold or bartered to
Central Asian middlemen

''

who carried the trade on to the
cities of the Persian, Syrian, andGreekmerchants. Each transaction increased the cost of the end product,
which reached the Roman Empire in the hands of Greek and Jewish entrepreneurs.''

— Parthians, Sogdians, Indians, and Kushans —

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The Classical World

The lands of the Mediterranean Sea (2000 B . C . E . to 500 C . E .) produced a remarkable evolution in travel.
In the cradle of Western civilization, travel for trade, commerce, religious purposes, festivals, medical
treatment, or education developed at an early date. There are numerous references to caravans and
traders in the Old Testament.
Beginning in 776 B . C . E ., from the city-states came together every four years to honor Zeus

through athletic competition. Eventually, four of these national festivals emerged:

Greeks

,
Pythian Games, Isthmian Games, and Nemean Games. Each festival included sacri ce and prayer to a
single god. The games honored the deity by offering up a superlative athletic or artistic performance:

Olympic Games

[T]hese festivals furnished in one unique package the spectrum of attractions that have drawn
tourists from all times and places: the feeling of being part of a great event and of enjoying a special
experience; a gay festive mood punctuated by exalted religious moments; elaborate pageantry; the
excitement of contests between performers of the highest calibre

and, on top of all this, a chance
to wander among famous buildings and works of art. Imagine the modern Olympics taking place at
Easter in Rome, with the religious services held at St. Peter

—

s. 19 '

s shelter. A guest who wanted to wash had to carry his
own towel down the street to the nearest public bath. Once there, he took off his clothes in a dressing
room and put them in someone

Greek inns provided little more than a night '

' s care, lest they be stolen while he bathed. '' The bath itself was a big

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Everyday folk could also be found wending their way to the sanctuaries of the healing gods,
especially Aesculapius. Such places were usually located in a beautiful setting that included pure air
and water (often with mineral springs). The sanctuary at Epidaurus also included facilities for rest and
diversion, including the temple with admired sculptures, colonnades for shaded walks, a stadium for

basin over which he leaned while an attendant sloshed water over him. ''