Until its destruction in the 5^th century AD, Taxila had functioned as a focal point connecting the Mediterranean countries and Central Asia to India for several centuries. Darius I first established commercial relations between India and Gandhara and the Western world. Following Alexander the Great’s conquests and due to the increasing demand of Eastern luxury goods in the West, the relations between India, Pakistan and the Mediterranean countries were intensified.

During the Yuan dynasty, the Muslim politician Sayyid-al-ajall Shames-al-din settled in China, where he became governor of the Yunnan province. Today, the descendents of Sayyid-al-ajall Shames-al-din are scattered over several provinces in China. His descendents in Quanzhou assimilated more and more to the dominant Han culture. There is an Ancestral Hall of the Ding family in Chendai. The Ding family in Chendai maintains their religious particularities, and they have become active in the preservation of the Hui minority’s heritage.

In the 20^th century, excavations provided new information on the contacts between the Roman Empire and ancient India. Roman artefacts, such as pottery, textiles and jewellery, were found in various sites along the Coromandel coast as well as in the hinterland in Southeast India. These sites formed part of a vast trading network on the land and on the sea. Ships from the Roman Empire usually sailed to the Indian West coast and the goods they brought were then transported to the East coast on Indian vessels or via the land route.

Glass was brought to China from West Asia around the 5^th century BC, probably via the maritime Silk Road. Shortly after, the Chinese started making their own glass and exported it to Korea and Japan. At the same time, Roman glass arrived in China over the inland and maritime roads. The import of pre-Islamic Sasanian glassware via the desert route was followed by Islamic glass, which reached China both by land and by sea. From the 11^th century, most glass was imported and exported over the maritime road.

The religious cults practiced by Central Asian nomadic tribes before the rise of the Sasanian Empire were varied, and some bore similarities to Zoroastrianism. Archaeological evidence from sites in Bactria, Magiana and Sogdia has revealed how the myths, gods and their representation as well as funerary rites in Central Asia evolved and spread from the Bronze Age until the arrival of Islam in the seventh century AD.

At the margins of the main Silk routes, numerous secondary routes equally contributed to the exchange of goods and works of art and the diffusion of languages, religions and cultural influences. Thus, several routes through the Himalaya connected India and China after the rise of the Kushan Empire in the 1^st century AD. The route running through Nubra Valley in the Ladakh district saw the passage of several Western explorers, and it remained open until the middle of the 20^th century.

The first semi-nomadic Turkish tribes living north of the Chinese border used to inhabit cylindrical tents with dome-like roofs known as öy or üy, which are still in use in several areas along the Silk Road. The tombs of these early tribes bore a similar shape. They were originally made of metal and plaster, a structure which was later replaced by similar-looking stone constructions. Funerary rites and architecture spread from Central Asia along the Silk Roads to the Balkans, and they survived over many centuries until the Ottoman Empire.

Coins remain a chief source of information on the history of the Indo-Greeks and their successors in Central Asia and India. Large numismatic treasures of extraordinary historic significance were recently found in several sites in Afghanistan and Pakistan, such as Mir Zakah, Ai Khanum, Bajaur, Wesa, Mian Khan Sanghou, Khauzikhelai, Attock, Siranwali and Sarai Saleh.

With the rise of the Han Dynasty in China, the Silk trade between China and countries as far away as Iran flourished. However, silk was by no means the only merchandise that was traded between China and the West. The merchants, who were envied, esteemed and despised, led dangerous nomadic lives. Their caravans were often joined by missionaries, and merchants played a crucial role in favouring cultural exchange and the propagation of religions.

In the early 1990s, excavations were launched at the Southeast Necropolis in the Syrian city of Palmyra. They revealed two underground tombs, tomb C and F, which have provided insight into funerary architecture and decoration during the 2^nd century AD.