One of the world's most ancient and historically important trade routes，the Silk Road conjures up exotic images of camel caravans，windswept deserts，and such legendary figures as Genghis Khan and Marco PExtending as far as the Indian kingdoms in the west，to present-day Xian in China in the east，the Silk Road was already a crossroads of Asia by the third century BCOriginally a caravan route and used from с 100 BC，the 4，000-mi (6，400-km) road started in Xi'an，China，followed the Great Wall to the northwest，climbed the Pamir M，crossed Afghanistan，and went on to the eastern Mediterranean Sea，where goods were taken by boat to Rome
