Traders on the Silk Road used camels to carry goods because they could handle harsh desert conditions and carry heavy loads. Camels were essential for land travel. For sea travel, sailors needed to understand wind patterns, especially monsoon winds in the Indian Ocean, to take advantage of seasonal changes for transporting goods.
Travel on the Silk Road
Traders had to find ways to move their goods efficiently. This is where camels come in, as they were the best way to travel. Nomadic peoples in Central Asia started domesticating camels as early as the second millennium BCE. For example, the Han Chinese used camels captured from the Xiongnu to carry military supplies. Camels were tough. They withstood the harsh desert conditions of Central Asia and could carry up to 500 pounds! Without pack animals-especially camels-transporting goods over land on the Silk Road would not have been worth the trouble.
Land wasn't the only way to travel. Merchants made use of the ocean to transport goods, too. Sailors didn't need camels, but a strong understanding of wind patterns and storm systems was required to successfully navigate the vast, dangerous waters. For example, in the Indian Ocean, monsoon winds blow from the northeast in the winter and from the southwest in the summer. With a southwestern wind pushing them east, merchants were able to travel from the Red Sea between Egypt and Arabia to India in the summer and then back to the Red Sea in the winter. This essential information was exchanged among sailors and made its way beyond the Indian Ocean. Summarize this and simple it very very short and very very simple
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