The Silk Road was a network of markets and trading posts throughout Asia and the Indian Ocean Basin that extended from the eastern Mediterranean to the interior of China, and it earned its name thanks to the most valued commodity on the route: silk. Because of the large number of travelers making their way down the road, the different cultures that came into contact on the route, and the luxury goods that were being exchanged, intimacy on the historical Silk Road was an interesting, complicated, and nuanced cluster of encounters.