Trade Routes In The Middle Ages

In order to travel during the Middle Ages, I would have traveled by trade routes. Due to the numerous trade routes throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, there would have been a lot of options to choose from before embarking on my journey. I would not have chosen a crusade because of the violence associated with them, and pilgrimages did seem to provide as much of a variation of culture as traveling along trade routes would have given me. Trade routes were responsible for transporting large numbers of materials from their place of origin across the medieval empires. I believe that their presence was important for the spread of art and culture.
The Incense Route transported Frankincense and other types of fragrances. This trade route originated
This empire is located in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula in the present day country of Yemen. The frankincense is harvested and sent to the city of Moscha, this is where my journey would have started. On my journey I would have tried to get to know the harvesters to understand what they did outside of their jobs. After the Frankincense is harvested, it is then sent up river to Shabwah in boats and barges. The boat experience would have been a great time to observe the development of boats and their ability to go against the flow of the river. Art is not restricted to the production of pictures and sculptures, but instead encompasses all development by people. The boats could thus be considered a piece of art. Once the frankincense arrives, it is sorted and packaged for transport to other empires across the Arabian Peninsula. I did not realize how developed the process was in the Middle Ages. It would have been interesting to talk with the people in Shabwah to understand how they came to this sophisticated process. The frankincense was heavily managed to optimize the process and turn the most profit. The Kingdom of Hadramat assisted with the Frankincense business as it continued to grow, and induced a 25% tax on the Arabian merchants for their efforts. After the product was ready to be sent north for trade, it would be loaded, among other various commodities, onto caravans. These caravans would stretch for miles across the vast desert and contain upwards of over one hundred camels. This part of my journey would have been the toughest part because it would have been unbearably hot and the days would seem like they never end. The first major city after Shabwah was Nejiran and then Mecca. The Kingdom of Hadramat was a pre-Islamic Empire, so the important of Mecca would not have been seen as it is today. I would think that there would have still been a lot of