Caravanserais were as much a part of the Silk Road as anything. My own thought is that they remind me of the Missions in California. A caravansary was like a large guest house or hotel complex for merchant caravans to stop at as they made their way along the trade routes. They gave the merchants a place to eat and rest for the night. They also gave the merchants an opportunity to exchange goods with other travelers and local merchants. A caravansary also gave the merchants protection from the dangers of the road, particularly in times of economic or political unrest and particularly if they were carrying precious cargo, such as silk.

Caravanserais ended up being much more than all of the above. Over time, they provided the opportunities for the exchange of cultures, languages, news, religions, and ideas. They were the proverbial mixing bowl for cultures. Cities that had caravanserais often became the cultural and intellectual centers along the Silk Road. Caravanserais go back as early as the third century BC but gained popularity as trade flourished across Central Asia in the 10th century. They continued to be used in places as late as the 19th century. Some still exist and we saw parts of caravanserais on our trip.

Our guide said that caravanserais were twenty miles apart because that was a day’s travel for the camel caravan. Our California missions were thirty miles apart as that was a day’s ride for a horse.

I’ll show two separate caravanserais in this post, just for examples. One was in Old Town Bukhara and the other was on the Silk Road between Bukhara and Samarkand.

The first photo is the front of an old caravansary that is in Old Town, Bukhara. They were usually constructed outside of the walls of a town or village. The front was a heavy-doored gateway, high and wide enough to admit loaded camels and they usually only had one entrance. The caravanserais were open from early morning until after dusk and then shut up tight at night. This caravansary was obviously a very nice one in Bukhara.

The caravansary in the second photo was out in the middle of nowhere. It was across the road at a roadside stop on the highway. You can, however, see the similarity. This one was not in or near any town or city.

The third photo is the inside of the caravansary in the first photo, in Bukhara. A Caravansary was usually quadrangular in form on the inside. They had massive walls. The 300 – 400 camels, mules, and horses would either stay in back somewhere, if enough space, or would just be tethered in the middle of the quad. The lower portion of the rooms would be for storing their merchandise. The upper portion of the wall would be rooms for lodging the people. Meals would be prepared in one corner of the quad. There often might be a well with a fountain basin in the center of the quad for water for the travelers and their animals. Can you imagine the smells with the camels and food when the temperature hit one-hundred degrees.

The fourth photo was right next to where we parked our bus in the roadside stop and across the highway from the caravansary entrance in the second photo. I was very curious about this structure.

If you look at the right side of the fourth photo, you see two low walls. These are each side of a ramp that goes down below the domed structure in the photo. You can see in the last photo that this is a cistern and this was the source of water so that a caravansary could be located here. So I presume that there was a well or river or some source of water at least every twenty miles across these deserts, as that was the distance between caravanserais.