Silk through Sauran
The Silk Road is known as the most famous trade route of ancient times, but in fact
it was a network of routes connecting east Asia to southern Europe and the Middle
East. It played a significant role in the movement of people and goods from about
130 BCE to the 13th century. The northern route of the Silk Road went right through
the southern part of Kazakhstan, sustaining important cities like Sauran and helping
them to develop.
Sauran was once the biggest city in Kazakhstan and a major trading centre on the
Silk Road. It was a place where travellers could stop to rest and replenish their
supplies of food and water. As an influential and cosmopolitan city, it was later used
as a capital for the White Horde.
Nowadays, the ruins are a tourist attraction. The walls still stand eight metres high
in some places and the city has been partly excavated. Archaeologists have found
evidence of a mosque, a marketplace and a sophisticated network of underground
canals, showing the inhabitants were quite advanced.
Sauran survived attack and siege, but it was slowly abandoned as people stopped using
the Silk Road and started trading by sea routes. Now, this once-bustling city is quiet and
empty except for small tortoises and the occasional bird. Standing among the crumbling
stones, it's incredible to imagine the people who once lived there, the goods they
traded, and the part they played in the history of the world's greatest overland trade
route: the Silk Road.
Read the text again and mark the statements 1-5 as
T (true) or F (false). Correct the false statements.
1)The Silk Road was a single road connecting east Asia to Europe
and the Middle East.
2)Sauran was the capital city of Kazakhstan.
3) Only the walls of the city have been excavated so far.
4) Sauran had an underground water system.
5) People stopped living in Sauran when traders stopped coming
along the Silk Road.
1.F
2.F
3.F
4.Т
5.Т
Объяснение: