The Silk Road is one of the most famous trade routes in history, a vast interconnected network along which not only goods but ideas, knowledge and culture flowed. Sam Willis joins Rebecca Franks to discuss its remarkable history and answer listener questions on the subject, spotlighting unforgettable ancient cities, Marco Polo’s colourful tales of travel and asking whether the Silk Road ever entirely disappeared.
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Back in the USSR: the Soviet Sixties
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: everything you wanted to know
Dinosaurs: a Victorian obsession
Tiger Tamer | 6. battling against Bovril
How was Elizabeth I shaped by her childhood?
Joan of Arc: life of the week
Leftovers: how our ancestors battled food waste
WW1's eastern front: everything you wanted to know
Eric 'Winkle' Brown: Britain's most extraordinary pilot
Tiger Tamer | 5. crazy about wheelbarrows
Will the real Jesus please stand up?
Mary Wollstonecraft: life of the week
An obscenity trial that shocked Victorian Britain
The Capetians: everything you wanted to know
Lothar II vs Theutberga: a marriage scandal that shook the ninth century
Tiger Tamer | 4. celebrity pedestrian
A political earthquake: Britain's first Labour government
James VI and I: life of the week
From Russia to Texas: the search for a Jewish homeland
British Redcoats: everything you wanted to know
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Dan Snow’s History Hit
Front Row
Not Just the Tudors
The Ancients
Gone Medieval