China, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Uzbekistan and India: if you went to any of these places a thousand years ago, you would find goods and produce from the others. But how did they get there and why? This week’s Forum explores the ancient pattern of trading networks which criss-crossed the plains, deserts and mountains of China, Central Asia and points further West, and which encouraged not just the exchange of commodities such as silk, paper and horses but ideas and people too.

(Photo: A man rides a horse at Band-e-Amir lake, central Afghanistan, on a former Silk Route that once linked China with Central Asia and beyond. Credit: Getty Images)