Kushan Empire

State · 43–237 CE · at its largest around 127 CE

Kushan kings held the Silk Road crossroads between Rome, Persia, India and China, and their coins mixed Greek, Iranian and Indian gods. Under Kanishka, artists of Gandhara and Mathura made some of the first images of the Buddha, and Buddhism spread along trade routes to China.

In the guided tours

The Silk Roads: The overland and maritime networks that carried silk, paper, religions, inventions and disease between China, India, Persia and the Mediterranean.

On its lands while it lasted

Ujjain (c. 600 BCE – c. 405 CE): Capital of Janapada of Avanti (600 BCE–405 BCE), Western Satraps (43–405).
Sogdians (c. 500 BCE – c. 900 CE): Iranian people of the Zeravshan valley around Samarkand and Bukhara whose merchants dominated trade along the Silk Roads, especially between the 4th and 8th centuries.
Silk Road (c. 130 BCE – c. 1450 CE): A network of overland caravan routes linking China with Central Asia, Persia and the Mediterranean, along which silk, spices, horses, religions, technologies and diseases travelled for more than 1,500 years.
Kushan Empire (c. 30–375 CE): Empire founded by Kujula Kadphises around 30 CE that united Bactria, Gandhara and northern India, linking Rome, Parthia and Han China through trade.
Bagram (c. 43 CE): Capital of Kushan Empire (43–237), Eastern Kushans (238–346), Western Kushans (238–259).
Gandhara Greco-Buddhist art (c. 100 CE): Buddhist art of Gandhara that blended Hellenistic and Indian styles and produced some of the earliest human representations of the Buddha.