For more than 2,000 years, tradesmen and monks travelled across China, Central Asia, and Europe overcoming spectacular terrains to trade goods on this 4000-mile Silk Road journey. Not only is this place where dates and pistachio, aloes and myrrh, and silk and porcelain were traded, this is also where Buddhist, Islamic, and Christian influence traveled to new cities; and where ideas, culture, and technologies were exchanged among civilizations.