For at least four thousand years, people have treasured silk.
Chinese legends say that in about 2640 B.C., a Chinese empress saw a silkworm cocoon accidentally fall into her tea. She watched the thread unravel in the warmliquid. She had discovered silk. But for thousands of years, the Chinese people kept the work of silkworms a secret. Death was the penalty for telling the
secret.
Long before the rest of the world learned how silk was made, the
Chinese were trading this treasured fabric with people west of China.
Merchants who bought and sold silk traveled along a system of
hazardous routes that came to be known as the "Silk Road." The
Silk Road stretched almost 2,500 miles (6,400 km.) from Chang'an
(Xi'an) in China to Rome, Italy. Silk, furs, and spices traveled west
toward Rome along the road. Gold, wool, glass, grapes, garlic, and
walnuts moved east toward China.
Travel along the Silk Road was treacherous and difficult. There
were many different routes; it was not a single road. For safety,
traders traveled in caravans of many people and animals. Some
kinds of pack animals were better equipped to handle certain parts of
the journey than others. Camels, for instance, were well suited to the
desert. They could store large amounts of water and withstand most
sandstorms. Yaks were often used in the high mountains.
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