The Great Silk Road

The Great Silk Road
When in the second half of the 19th century German orientalist Ferdinand Richthoven, who investigated the ancient caravan trails heading from the East to the West, in his fundamental scientific work titled "China" for the first time coined the term "Silk Road", he did not expect, that only one and a half century later the term "The Great Silk Road" would become a global historical brand.
On the Great Silk Road lie the cities whose names breathe of Oriental exotics - Samarkand and Tashkent, Bukhara and Khiva, Teheran and Baku… But life goes on and everything changes in the world. The ancients had all the reason to say that one can't hold the time. The Minaret Kalyan in Bukhara, which for many centuries dominated over the city, has yielded the palm to the modern TV tower. Camel trails have been intersected by modern autobahns, railways have been built along the caravan routes.
In the age of globalization, when transnational companies gain importance, the revival of intercontinental route is becoming a social need, a demand of the times.
In 1988 UNESCO approved the project "The integral research of the Silk Road - the road of a dialogue", intended for the period of 10 years. This project was meant for a large-scale and detailed study of the history of the ancient route, the formation and development of cultural contacts between the East and the West, improvement of relations between the nations populating the Eurasian continent.
In 1993 the UN General Assembly took the decision on reviving the Great Silk Road as an important channel of international cooperation in the field of diplomacy, culture, science, trade, and tourism.
Transport communications and tourism have become important components of the brand "The Great Silk Road". Nowadays, the leading role in the revival of the ancient route belongs to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), which is carrying out the long-term project called