Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c9.3

c9.3

THE ancient city of Baktra (Bākhtri or Bākhdhi in old Persian, the modern Balkh), like Constantinople or Alexandria, was destined by its geographical position to play a leading part in the history of the world. On the landward side, it was the key to India. At its gates converged almost all the great trade-routes of central Asia. First, there were the famous “three roads to Baktria¹,” running through Afghanistan and converging at Balkh. Then there was the road through Kashgar to the Stone Tower of Sarikol, by which the silk-traders brought their goods. Lastly, there were the two great highways to the West, the waterway of the Oxus, and the caravan road through Parthia to Antioch.