Spend an exotic day along the most legendary trade route in history! Long before wireless communications and overnight deliveries, the Silk Road connected humanity. Under vast starry skies and across some of the most treacherous landscapes, the route stretched 5,700 miles from China to the Roman Empire. Along the way were the world’s most progressive cities, teeming with the lively exchange of exotic goods and new ideas.
In the exhibition Traveling the Silk Road at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, you will take a journey accented by the spectacular sight of camel caravans, the pungent scent of spices, the luster of exquisite silks, and the energy of creative thinking. You will visit five cities that flourished from AD 600 to 1200 during the route’s golden age: Xi’an, ancient capital of China; Turfan, a fertile oasis; Samarkand, a grand city of commerce; Baghdad, the scholarly center of the Islamic world; and Constantinople, eastern capital of the Roman Empire.
You will experience an array of wonders: a vivid full-scale re-creation of a night market in Turfan, a display of live silkworms, astronomy tools that helped mariners navigate the seas, historical enactors who bring this era to life, and a 41-foot-long replica of an Arabian sailing ship.
In reality the Silk Road wasn’t a road at all but a complex network of routes that moved goods from the Far East to Eastern Europe and back. The Silk Road helped spread the math, astronomy, and precision tools that made naval navigation reliable—and thus indirectly aided its own demise. However, there’s little question that ultimately it was the ancient pathway that led to the modern world.
Visit www.dmns.org/traveling-the-silk-road/ to learn more and purchase tickets.