You are a traveler on the Silk Road. Describe the landscape and geographical features that might cause your caravan problems in its speed of travel and its ability to complete the trip
What will be an ideal response?
A. Landscape and geography of the Silk Road
1. long and strenuous journey
a. Marco Polo accounts
1. harsh weather
2. difficulty in travelling in the winter
3. three and half years to make the journey
2. Taklamakan desert was the great obstacle
a. modest water sources of the desert could not sustain many more
than 50 men at a time with their beasts
b. Normal to go for 30 days without finding water
3. danger of getting lost without good guides
a. Port of Tana, on the black sea, you should furnish yourself with a
good guide, regardless of expense
4. despite policing by Mongols, road still dangerous
a. important to take a close relative for company
b. should a merchant die, his property would be forfeit
5. silver was the currency of the road
a. Chinese authorities would exchange it for paper money
6. Tian Shan, one of the most formidable mountain ranges in the world
7. stop at one of the many cities that served as way stations
a. Maragha was a suitable way station: the intellectual capital of
the western Mongol world
8. most likely traveling from east to west
a. reflects the balance of wealth and power at the time
b. China was rich and productive, Europe a needy backwater
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