A Letter Along the Silk Road
A merchant carries a sealed letter and a bolt of silk across three thousand miles of the Silk Road. Write a diary of one leg of the journey — a mountain pass, an oasis city, a caravanserai at night.
The Silk Road was not one road but a web of trade routes linking East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. It moved silk, spices, paper, ideas, religions — and disease.
Field notes
Did you know
- Paper-making technology traveled westward along these routes.
- Caravanserais were roadside inns where travelers and camels rested.
- The routes carried religions and pandemics as readily as goods.
Key phrases
caravanserai · oasis · the pass · bolt of silk · dust and bell · a road made of many roads
Chase this down
Look up: Samarkand; the exchange of paper and ideas along the routes.
Craft tip
Let the landscape do characterization: what your narrator notices reveals who they are.
Try this
Write only the sensory log — five entries, one for each sense.