Persia - The Royal Road and the Silk Road

The Persian empire was established by Cyrus II, Cyrus the Great in 550 BCE with the conquest of Median, Lydian and Babylonian.

The empire kept growing and at one point around 480 BCE the Persian Empire had almost half of the whole world under its control with a population of almost 50 million of the estimated 112 million people on the whole planet.

The most notable part of Persian history include the three Persian wars that confronted the Greeks and the Persians.

It was Darius I who started the Persian wars by invading Greece mainland, and it was also him who developed the Persian Royal road, an ancient highway built to facilitate rapid communication through the Persian empire; From Susa, in Iran, to Sardis, modern-day Turkey. 2700 km in total.

Fast forward a few hundred years, the Persian Royal road served as the backbone for the most famous Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes, both terrestrial and maritime, that connected East Asia and Southeast Asia with East Africa, West Asia and Southern Europe.

Trade on the Road played a significant role in the development of the civilizations of China, Korea, Japan, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Europe, the Horn of Africa and Arabia opening long-distance political and economic relations between the civilizations.

Though silk was the major trade item exported from China, many other goods were traded, as well as religions, philosophies, sciences, and technologies. Diseases, most notably plague and black death, also spread along the Silk Road.

As we said, the Persian Royal Road serve as one of the main arteries of the Silk Road and Iran, as a country located between China and Europe, played a key role in connecting various cultures and civilizations that existed along the Silk Road with Persepolis becaming one of the main trading points along the road.

Today, China is bringing back to life the old Silk Road with the One Belt, One Road initiative.