Editing Openai/691d9c1d-d468-8006-890d-7854f5b6223f (section)

=== The term “Silk Road” (Seidenstraße) was coined by a German geographer, Ferdinand von Richthofen, in 1877. ===
Ancient peoples never used that term, nor did they think of a single unified transcontinental route.

Even in classical or medieval sources, you don’t find:
* a named highway
* a continuous mapped path
* an idea of Asia-to-Europe as one coherent corridor

Instead, the reality was a messy network of local, overlapping caravan routes, constantly shifting because of wars, climate, empires rising/falling, banditry, nomadic confederations, and customs duties.

Ancient merchants thought in small segments, not in some romantic “from Chang’an to Rome” sweep.

So when Dalrymple says “the Silk Road is a myth,” he doesn't mean trade didn’t happen — he means the concept of a unified road is an anachronism invented by Europeans.