The "Magic Road," a bridge that connects Eastern and Western history, comes to life in 18 stories.

This book contains the story of the fascinating history of the Silk Road, the 'magic road'.
This book is enough to give teenagers and adults who are new to the Silk Road a 'first taste' of the Silk Road.
You can learn basic knowledge about the Silk Road, as well as encounter a wealth of side stories.
The Silk Road itself can be seen as a giant story tree with countless branches.

The dramatic moments of exchange between the East and the West along the Silk Road are valuable historical records that shaped the geography and structure of the world today.
Also noteworthy is the story of our country's history, which is closely intertwined with the Silk Road and appears at important points.
Rather than a rigid chronological narrative, the story is structured around interesting episodes and characters, creating a sense of realism. It also includes abundant reference photos, illustrated maps, and information to meet the reader's level.

Perhaps we have forgotten the Silk Road all this time.
Perhaps we only know of a few civilized nations in the East and the West that prospered on both sides of the Silk Road, and we may only remember a few of the cultural artifacts they exchanged along the Silk Road.
The great wave of history that occurred in the heart of the Eurasian continent may have been forgotten like a childhood dream.
From now on, I would like to travel with you to the forgotten Silk Road and witness the true face of its resurrected history and culture.
If you do this, you will surprisingly realize that the historical scenes that unfolded around the Silk Road are not unrelated to our country's history.
--- p.6

If you look at figures carved on ancient Greek statues or vessels made around 500 BC, they are often wrapped in fabrics that look light and luxurious, as if they could fly away.
The fabric is most likely silk.
Of course, since the Greeks did not know how to raise sericulture or weave silk, the silk came from China and was very expensive.
Unless you were a nobleman who could afford to indulge in luxury, you could not afford to wear silk clothes.
It wasn't just Greece.
A corpse dressed in silk was also discovered in a 5th century BC tomb near Stuttgart, Germany.
Chinese silk artifacts dating back to the 3rd century BC were also discovered in the Crimea region of Russia.
At that time, the Silk Road had not yet been officially opened by China.
So, even before China built and managed the roads to sell silk, silk was being sold across the Eurasian continent in places like Greece and Germany.
--- p.38

What exactly is the relationship between China's Uyghur minority and the Turks that would lead them to protest over the suffering of the Uyghurs in China? Turks consider the Uyghurs of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, as well as the peoples of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan to the west, as fraternal peoples.
And the region of Central Asia where they live is called 'Turkestan'.
It means 'land of Türkiye'.
So what is the relationship between the Turks and the various peoples of Turkestan? This question holds the secret to understanding Central Asia today.
And the key to unlocking that secret is the Turkic empire that ruled over ancient Turkestan.
--- p.86

We can see Muslims living in Unified Silla all over Gyeongju.
In Oedong-eup, on the road from Gyeongju to Ulsan, there is the tomb of King Wonseong (reign 785-798), who ruled Unified Silla in the late 8th century.
In front of this tomb stand a pair of unmanned stone statues, each 2.5 meters tall.
There are also similar unmanned stone statues at the Heungdeok Royal Tomb in Angang-eup and the Heondeok Royal Tomb next to Bukcheon in Gyeongju.
--- p.122

In terms of timing, Zheng He reached the Indian Ocean almost a century before Columbus and Vasco da Gama.
Therefore, if we treat them fairly, it is right to say that all the great explorers of the West combined would not be able to match the number of Jeong Hwa alone.
Even today, in Malacca, a port city in Malaysia, and in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, you can find numerous relics honoring Zheng He as the god of the sea, and you can see that the Chinese people he nurtured are now traveling the seas and lands of the world.
--- p.182

But just as my friends tilted their heads when they saw the AH1 sign earlier, there is a crucial obstacle preventing us from fully utilizing this modern Silk Road.
It is the division of North and South Korea.
We can freely travel to almost any country in the world with a South Korean passport, but we cannot go to the nearest country, North Korea.
Because our steps stop at the Military Demarcation Line, we cannot go beyond it on the Silk Road.
It might only take a few hours to drive through North Korea, but because those few hours are not allowed, we are deprived of the tens or hundreds of hours of freedom that the Silk Road offers.

--- p.257