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Welcome to the Silk Road Virtual Museum Experience
The Virtual Museum Sites and Exhibitions are listed in alphabetical order. Enter the virtual museums below.
Please note: some museums may take longer to open due to the higher quality and larger number of images employed
Take a tour of the Ancient Silk Roads. Select your period then choose your destination.
Locations Map
Afterlives Along the Silk Road
Death was a fate suffered by everyone who lived and travelled along the Silk Road. What happened next, depended on...
Byzantium (1262-1453)
Between its reconquest in 1261 and its final capture by the Ottomans in 1453, Constantinople remained the capital of the...
Byzantium 5th-10th Centuries
From 330 to 1000 CE, the Byzantine Empire, with Constantinople as its capital, stood as a formidable force. Its mosaics...
Caravanserai (0-1500)
Merchants and travelers along the Silk Road faced many dangers, but for stretches of the journey they could rely on...
Chess Along The Silk Road
The modern game of chess is a perfect example of cultural exchange along the silk roads. Starting in the North-West...
Cilicia (1226-1375)
Cilicia was a Christian Armenian kingdom situated in an area broadly comparable the south-eastern borders of Turkey with the Mediterrean.
Early Ming Dynasty China (1368-1450)
Mongols had ruled China since 1271 but plague, disease and increasing demands on the population led to discontent and revolt....
Golden Horde
When the great Mongol leader, Ghangis Khan, died in 1225, he divided his empire among his four grandsons. Batu was...
Mamluk Sultinate (1350-1450) Glass
The Mamluks were a slave army that ruled the territory broadly contiguous with Egypt and Syria from 1250-1508CE. Under their...
Northern Song and Yuan Dynasty Art
Genghis Khan, first conquered the Jin Dynasty. Then, Kublai Khan, captured and ruled China as the Yuan Dynasty. This period...
Sasanian Empire (224-651)
The Sasanian dynasty ruled for over four centuries from 224 to 651CE. At its peak the Empire encompassed all of...
Silk Along the Silk Road
Silk is a beautiful fabric but throughout this period it is only the rich and privileged that had access to...
Map Room 700-1500 CE
This exhibition shows world maps created between 700CE and 1500CE. But which worlds do they show – history, culture, religion...
Sogdians: Silk Road Traders
The Sogdian people were originally from an area now associated with eastern Iranian but were later concentrated in Central Asia,...
Taiyuan Tombs of Zhen Fan
This tomb was uncovered in 2018 in Taiyuan City in the Shanxi province of China. Workmen stumbled across a single-chamber...
Tang Dynasty China
The Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) was a golden age of Chinese art, marked by flourishing painting, ceramics, and sculpture, reflecting...
The Timurid Empire (1370-1507): The Court
Even by the standards of the time, Timur’s wars of conquest were particularly murderous but he and his successors promoted...
Tibetan Empire (618-842)
Between 618 and 842 the mountain Kingdom gained control of an Empire that stretched as far North as the oasis...
Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates (656-1000)
The Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates were the earliest established after the death of the prophet Mohammad. They flourished from the...
Venice (1261-1450)
Venice reached the peak of its imperial reach at the start of the 13th century with the seizure and sacking...
Vikings in the East
In the 9th-10th centuries Norse traders navigated the Volga and Dnieper Rivers, linking Scandinavia with the Byzantine Empire and Islamic...
Download stories of Porcelain and Silk
The Silk Road Diplomat articles have been created to share the lives of cultures along the Silk Road.
Find out about the Porcelain Tower and the mysteries of the Silk Road Museum in Part I of the Silk Road Diplomat.