Maps Only two possible routes for Chinese caravans existed from Zhi-Zhi to Li-Jien. One goes north of the Tian Shan mountain range, an area controlled by the hostile Huns. While relations between the Han dynasty and the Xiongnu (Huns) were generally peaceful, it was not the case during this time when China silenced the band of marauders based at Zhi-Zhi. The more likely route taken by our 145 survivors would have been south of Tian Shan under escort from the Chinese expeditionary force that had come out there to destroy Zhi-Zhi. The northwestern tip of the Himalayan mountain range (with nearby K2 among the giant peaks) forms the southern wall of the corridor now visible on our modern maps as that tiny umbilical cord of Afghanistan that connects to China. This route opens up into the Tarim Basin in the Takla Maklan desert, a former lake bed that has dried up enough to mummify the dead including some 400 bodies discovered in the past couple of decades. This area now known as Xinjiang province was annexed by China in 1955 two years before annexation of Tibet. It became China's version of Siberia where subversives were sent to live in many labor camps, a lovely region fit for nuclear blasts once China acquired the bomb. Li-Jien was more than just a city set aside for the Romans, it was an entire county. Yes! Tax records show they looked after a county perched along the edge of the Chinese Empire, one of a long line of garrisons protecting the northern border from the Huns. The Romans would have taken their work quite seriously, conducting regular patrols because immediately to their south lay the vulnerable Silk Road. Also, 800 km southeast lay the capital city of the Han Dynasty, Chang-an (now called Xian). If they were just like today's immigrants in North America, the Roman men would have spoken to one another in their old languages and children would have grown up bilingual or trilingual. Even grandchildren would have been taught diligently so as not to isolate Grandpa, especially in a culture where seniors were highly venerated. With that in mind, descendants two centuries later may have been useful as translators once Marcus Aurelius sent Rome's first ever envoy. The new Romans of this historic envoy landed on the coast of Indochina where large numbers of Roman coins have been found in modern times. hahahachoo, daughter of the house of Wu. Sunday September 30, 2007 to RETURN to online monument MAIN PAGE please click here