The Silk Road Crossing In Iran:Case Study: Qazvin

Document from the year 2014 in the subject Earth Science / Geography - History of Geography, grade: Ph.D, language: English, abstract: From the very ancient times till the beginning of the 20th century, animals like camels, donkeys, mules and horses, and more than the others, camels were used as means of transportation and all these animals were able to walk through narrow pathways in the mountainous regions in a line, and thus forming a caravan which consisted of some animals linked together in a line. Caravan routes which probably contained all 8000 kilometers of the Silk Road, used to cross many mountain passes and peaks with steep slopes. But at the beginning of the 20thcentury, motor vehicles replaced the camels and caravans in the Asian part of the Silk Road and since motor vehicles were not able to pass the steep slopes of the high mountain passes and peaks, they tried to bypass the old routes of the Silk Road. The increasing motor vehicles and disappearing the animals who served the mankind for thousands of years, many wide roads for motor vehicles were made on flat parts and away from any villages in recent years. So because of the negative impact of civilization, the old routes and roads may be totally forgotten and swept away in future.