In the beginning... 4300 B.C. // 520 B.C.
The discovery and trade of spices has seen empires rise and cities fall, and great powers succeed one another, but it has also served to bind together different eras of human history. This trade was the starting point for relations between nations, and led East and West to remain in constant contact.
These spice trade routes have remained the main arteries of communication between Asia and Africa, some of them followed by caravans for thousands of years. The spice trade has a magical charm that no other trade can claim. This is due to our imagination and our senses, each associating pleasant sensations with these marvellous gifts of nature, which for centuries have been the most important elements in relations and exchanges between East and West.
The spice trade by sea is a recent phenomenon, since it wasn't until the end of the 15th century that the first sailors rounded the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa. Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama were the men who took this route to India.
Remains of nutmeg dating back to 4,300 BC have been found in Iraq. At that time, nutmeg trees grew in only one part of the world: Banda Island in Indonesia's Moluccan archipelago.
Before maritime discoveries took off as we know them today, there were thousands of years when caravans traveled insane distances to bring precious goods to the great cities of the great empires: Athens, Rome, Byzantium, Memphis, Thebes, Baghdad, Cairo, Samarkand, Alexandria, Carthage, Mecca, Berbera, Marseille, Bruges, London, Beijing, Kashgar...
The names of the oldest cities appear in Old Testament texts. Spices are often mentioned in the Bible, as well as their use and research. Spices from India, myrrh from Arabia, balm from Galead, were transported to Egypt. During Solomon's reign, spices were brought by the Queen of Sheba, and Troy competed with Jerusalem for their consumption.
Camels were the most common means of transport for caravans, so much so that Sesostris I, king of Egypt in the 12th dynasty in the 19th century B.C., was looking for a way to simplify imports from India via a passage between the Red Sea and the Nile. 1500 years later, in 520 B.C., Darius son of Hystape took up his idea again, but this time to link the Red Sea to the Mediterranean; Egypt's soil being lower than sea level, he gave up.
