Routes of Silk Road

China - Kyrgyzstan - Kazakhstan - Tajikistan - Uzbekistan - Turkmenistan - Iran - Iraq - Turkey ....

The Great Silk Road has never been a single highway. Its system included several branches of caravan roads that passed through different passes in mountain ranges, bypassing deserts. 

The Silk Road originally originated in Chan'an, the ancient capital of China, and walked along the northern Tien Shan to Dunhua, a city on the outskirts of the Great Wall of China. Here, a single road forked, fringing the Takla Makan desert from the north and south. North went through Turpan to the valley of the Ili River. The middle (the so-called South Way) from Chaochan to the southern coast of Issyk-Kul - through Khotan and Yarkand, led to Bactria (northern Afghanistan). Here, the Southern Route diverged into two other routes: one led to India, the other to the West and to Merv, where it merged with the Northern Route. Further, he passed through Nisa - the capital of Parthia, Iran, Mesopotamia and then went through Baghdad to Damascus, reaching the Mediterranean.