~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Silk Road (red) and spice trade routes (blue).
The spice trade involved historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. Spices, such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, star anise, clove, and turmeric, were known and used in antiquity and traded in the Eastern World. These spices found their way into the Near East before the beginning of the Christian era, with fantastic tales hiding their true sources.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “spice trade” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.