<P> In June 2014, UNESCO designated the Chang'an - Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site . The Indian portion is on the tentative site list . </P> <P> The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative Asian silk, a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive transcontinental network . The German terms Seidenstraße and Seidenstraßen ("the Silk Road (s)") were coined by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872 . The term Silk Route is also used . Although the term was coined in the 19th century, it did not gain widespread acceptance in academia or popularity among the public until the 20th century . The first book entitled The Silk Road was by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938 . The fall of the Soviet Union and' Iron Curtain' in 1989 led to a surge of public and academic interest in Silk Road sites and studies in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia . </P> <P> Use of the term' Silk Road' is not without its detractors . For instance, Warwick Ball contends that the maritime spice trade with India and Arabia was far more consequential for the economy of the Roman Empire than the silk trade with China, which at sea was conducted mostly through India and on land was handled by numerous intermediaries such as the Sogdians . Going as far as to call the whole thing a "myth" of modern academia, Ball argues that there was no coherent overland trade system and no free movement of goods from East Asia to the West until the period of the Mongol Empire . He notes that traditional authors discussing East - West trade such as Marco Polo and Edward Gibbon never labelled any route a "silk" one in particular . </P> <P> Central Eurasia has been known from ancient times for its horse riding and horse breeding communities, and the overland Steppe Route across the northern steppes of Central Eurasia was in use long before that of the Silk Road . Archeological sites such as the Berel burial ground in Kazakhstan, confirmed that the nomadic Arimaspians were not only breeding horses for trade but also great craftsmen able to propagate exquisite art pieces along the Silk Road . From the 2nd millennium BCE, nephrite jade was being traded from mines in the region of Yarkand and Khotan to China . Significantly, these mines were not very far from the lapis lazuli and spinel ("Balas Ruby") mines in Badakhshan, and, although separated by the formidable Pamir Mountains, routes across them were apparently in use from very early times . </P>

Where did they trade on the silk road