Cashmir, by one of the branches of the Indus into Cashmir,[1] running almost in a continuous line with the road through Asia Minor mentioned by Herodotus. This great eastern route has been fully described by both Strabo and Pliny, who derived their knowledge chiefly from the writings of the companions of Alexander.
Ecbatana,
and, Peucela, on the Indus.
According to these accounts, it appears to have gone
directly east in about 36° N. latitude to Ecbatana, the
capital of Media, and thence to the Caspian gates,
through which everything coming from the west
necessarily passed. On the north lay the Hyrcanian
mountains; on the south an impenetrable desert;
and on one portion of the route there was the narrow
defile, about eight Roman miles in length, which
Pliny describes as having been cut through the
rocks.[2] From the Caspian Pass, the road led with
various considerable turns till it reached Peucela on the
Indus. From Alexandria in Ariis (Herát), and Ortospanum
(Kâbul), other routes turned off into Bactriana,
and thence proceeded into Great Tatary and Central
Asia.[3] As there was considerable commercial intercourse
between the neighbouring inhabitants of the
city of Bactra (Balkh) and of Upper India, another
route ran due north to Marakanda (Samarcand); and
Heeren is of opinion that caravans traversed the
desert from Badakhshan to Serica (China), and from
that country to the Ganges.
Earliest land and sea combined routes. Herodotus relates that from the Greek establishments on the Black Sea there were commercial routes through Central Asia, over the Ural Mountains to the country of the Calmucks of Great
