Routes Across Iran: Trade and Exchange
Overland and maritime routes linked Iranian regions to changing Eurasian networks. Roads, merchants, caravanserais, textiles, and games moved through many hands; no single people permanently controlled the center of a single timeless Silk Road.
Start this guided tour on the mapPart 1
The Achaemenids maintained a network of royal roads and relay stations connecting Susa with western Anatolia and other imperial regions. Herodotus describes the Susa-Sardis route and its stations, but neither its exact length nor a uniquely rapid seven-day journey should be generalized to ordinary travel. It was an imperial communications network, not the ancient world's first highway and not a simple prototype for every later route.
- Susa iii. The Achaemenid Period — Encyclopaedia Iranica
Part 2
Under Arsacid rule, Iranian and Mesopotamian territories formed important links among Central Asia, India, and the Mediterranean. Merchants used overland and Persian Gulf routes, while wars and diplomacy repeatedly redirected traffic. Parthian rulers and subjects benefited from exchange, but the image of one empire deliberately preventing Rome and China from meeting reduces a complex network to a monopoly story.
- Commerce iii. In the Parthian and Sasanian periods — Encyclopaedia Iranica
Part 3
Sogdian-speaking merchants built durable communities and partnerships across Central Asia and into China. The Ancient Letters, found near Dunhuang and dating to the early fourth century, illuminate family ties, credit, news, and long-distance commerce. They are exceptionally early merchant documents, not securely the world's oldest. Sogdian networks also helped circulate religious texts and practices alongside goods.
- Sogdian Trade — Encyclopaedia Iranica
Part 4
Caravanserais offered travelers shelter, water, storage, worship, and spaces for exchange. Surviving Iranian examples span many periods, climates, patrons, and plans; they were not uniformly spaced or products of one dynasty. Together they show how states, endowments, and local communities supported mobility, while routes still remained vulnerable to season, security, and political change.
- The Persian Caravanserai — UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Part 5
Sasanian workshops produced and used luxury textiles, while imported silk and designs also moved through Iranian domains. Roundels, paired animals, and royal imagery traveled widely and were copied and reinterpreted in Central Asia, Byzantium, and beyond. Because surviving fabrics have complicated provenances, a motif's Sasanian appearance does not prove that every object was woven at Ctesiphon.
- Silk iii. Silk Textiles in Iran — Encyclopaedia Iranica
Part 6
Chess probably entered Sasanian Iran from India, though its earliest history remains debated. Middle Persian chatrang became Arabic shatranj, and Persian terms and literary stories accompanied the game's westward transmission. Rules continued to change in Islamic lands and Europe, so modern chess is not the product of one country but the outcome of repeated adaptation.
- Chess — Encyclopaedia Iranica