IMAGES OF ASIA

Sapporo snow and ice festival, Japan

Kinkaku-ji Temple, (gold temple)

Kyoto

Imperial Palace, TokyoGinza, Tokyo

Meiji Shrine, Tokyo

Chiang Mai – Wat and Hill tribe woman

WAT

PHRA

Bangkok

Temple

of the

Emerald

Buddha

Wat Pho

Bangkok

Bangkok

Golden Budda, Wat Pho, Bangkok

Wat Pho - the oldest and largest Wat in Bangkok.

WAT PHRA SI SANPHET, AYUTTHAYAAyutthaya served as the capital of Thailand for 417 years from 1350AD to 1767AD, and now serves as a World Heritage site.The area around these ruins has served as:

•a royal palace; •a monastic temple; •pagodas (chedis) for royal remains; •a royal chapel and halls of worship.

                                                      

Grand Palace Bangkok

Yang

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Ri

ver

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Terracotta Soldiers, Xian, China

Forbiden Palace, Beijing, China

Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Angkor Wat Cambodia

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Halong Bay, Vietnam

History of the Silk Road• The Silk Road opens

The route from China to the west was opened around 200 BC, but the golden age of the Silk Road was not until around 600 AD, which coincided with the Tang dynasty in China. During 1200 AD there was a resurgence of the Silk Road trade. This was shortlived, because of the ravages of Ghengis Khan and Timur the Great, the development of maritime trade routes, and the increasing desertification of eastern Central Asia, which had made travel by caravan more and more perilous.

• The end of the Silk RoadWith the establishment of the Ming dynasty in China came the end of the silk trade along the Silk Road. However, the interchange between oasis towns along the Silk Road has continued to some extent.

• The Karakoram HighwayToday's equivalent of the Silk Road is the Karakoram Highway, which was built by China and Pakistan and runs from Islamabad to Kashgar. The main difference, however, is that instead of camels carrying bales of silk the traffic consists of trucks carrying oil.

Registan Square, Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Taj Mahal, Agra,India

Pink Palace, Jaipur, India

Krak de Chevalier, Syria

Petra, Jordan

Dead Sea

Wailing Wall, Jerusalem

Cappadocia, Turkey

Troglodyte rock formations in Cappadocia, Turkey