The Thousand-Year-Old “Sandwich”: What Did Travelers Eat on the Silk Road?

Traveling along the Silk Road was a long and exhausting journey. Merchants often had to cross vast deserts where food was difficult to carry and even harder to preserve. So what did travelers eat during these long caravan journeys?

One of the most practical foods was naan, a type of dry flatbread widely eaten in Xinjiang and Central Asia. Because naan was baked to be extremely dry and contained very little moisture, it could last for a long time without spoiling. In many ways, it worked like an ancient version of a travel snack or energy bar.

Archaeologists have even discovered pieces of naan in Tang Dynasty tombs in Turpan that are more than 1,000 years old, and they were still clearly recognizable. Although it’s probably not a good idea to taste them today, the discovery shows just how durable this simple bread was.

For merchants crossing deserts with camel caravans, naan was the perfect travel companion — easy to carry, long-lasting, and filling enough to sustain them during their journeys across the Silk Road.