The Silk Road or Silk Route is a
modern term referring to a historical network of
interlinking trade routes across the Afro-
Eurasian landmass that connected East, South,
and Western Asia with the Med iterranean and
European world, as well as parts of North and
East Africa. Extending 6,500 km, the Silk Road
gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk
trade along it, which began during the Han
Dynas (206 BC - 220 AD). The Kushan Empire
incorporated Samarkand, Bokhara and Fergana,
bordering on the Silk Road towns of Kashgar,
Yarkand and Khotan The main route from
Central Asia into India, connecting India with
the Silk Roads and the Mediterraneanran
through Gandhara. Kanishka sought to promote
the thriving trade with the Silk Road centres like
Kashgar and beyond, sending an envoy to Ttajan
in Rome.