READ ALOUD: The Silk Route: 7,000 Miles of History
We will be using the map above from The Silk Route: 7,000 miles of History by John S. Major.
VIDEO: Animated Map of the Silk Route
VIDEO: The Silk Road: An Ancient World of Adventure
– Episode 01: Glories of Ancient Chang-An
– Episode 02: A Thousand Kilometers Beyond The Yellow River
– Episode 03: The Art Gallery in the Desert
– Episode 04: The Dark Castle
– Episode 05: In Search of the Kingdom of Lou-Lan
– Episode 06: Across The Taklamakan Desert
– Episode 07: Khotan-Oasis of Silk and Jade
– Episode 08: A Heat Wave Called Turfan
– Episode 09: Through the Tian Shan Mountains by Rail
– Episode 10: Journey Into Music-South Through The Tian Shan Mountains
– Episode 11: Where Horses Fly Like the Wind
– Episode 12: Two Roads to the Pamirs
GEOGRAPHY: The Silk Route/The Silk Road/Eastern Trade Route
– Caravans
– Bactrian Camel (two hump) vs Dromedary Camel (single hump)
– Steppe
– Desert
– Oasis
– Mountain
– Cave
– River
INTERESTING FACT: Texas Camel Corp and Wild Texas Camels
‘The Land of Silk’ aka China
Trade Items:
– Silk
– Inventions: papermaking, noria
Also exchanged along the route…
– Religion: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism
– Disease: Plague
READ ALOUD: The Silk Princess
READ ALOUD: Red Butterfly: How a Princess Smuggled the Secret of Silk Out of China
VIDEO: How Do They Do It?: Silk From Worm Spit
GEOGRAPHY: Chang’an, China aka Xi’an, China
– Giant Wild Goose Pagoda (652 AD)
GEOGRAPHY: Yellow River aka Huang He (‘The Cradle of Chinese Civilization’)
GEOGRAPHY: Dunhuang, China
GEOGRAPHY: Mogao Caves
– Buddhist Caves
CURRICULUM: The Story of the World, Volume 2, Ch 5:
– Monks in Caves
GEOGRAPHY: Taklamakan Desert (‘If you go in, you will never come out’)
GEOGRAPHY: Kashgar, China
PEOPLE: Herding People: Uighurs, Turkomans, Tibetans
– Yurts
– Black Tents
RESOURCES:
– Kashgar Fruit: Dates, Melons, Grapes
– Naan (bread)
– Jade
GEOGRAPHY: The Pamirs (‘The Trail of Bones’)
GEOGRAPHY: Tashkent, Uzbekistan and Ferghana Valley
RESOURCES: Horses of Ferghana
VIDEO: Ferghana Horses
GEOGRAPHY: Samarkand, Uzbekistan
– Papermaking
GEOGRAPHY: Transoxiana (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgyzstan, and southwest Kazakhstan)
GEOGRAPHY: Oxus River aka Amu Darya
– Nomads
– Bandits
GEOGRAPHY: Herat, Afghanistan
– Persian Artisans
VIDEO: How Persian Rugs Are Made
VIDEO: Perisian Rug Symbols
GEOGRAPHY: Baghdad, Iraq
– Minaret, Caliph Mosque (901–907 AD)
– World Trade
– Zanzibar ivory, gold, spices
GEOGRAPHY: Zanzibar, Tanzania
CURRICULUM: The Story of the World, Volume 2, Ch 7:
– The City of Baghdad
GEOGRAPHY: Tigris River
– Remind children of Ancient Mesopotamia studies
GEOGRAPHY: Damascus, Syria
GEOGRAPHY: Tyre, Lebanon
– Tyrian purple (Justinian I, Theodora, Charlemagne)
VIDEO: Tyrian Purple Dye: Ancients Used Marine Snails to Make It
GEOGRAPHY: Mediterranean Sea
GEOGRAPHY: Constantinople aka Istanbul, Turkey