Caravansaries (Civ6)/Civilopedia

As caravan routes expanded across the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa, the need for places where pack animals and human handlers could pause for rest, shelter, provisions, and safety – for a fee, of course – grew. Public caravansaries were complexes built outside the walls of towns and cities; private ones usually took the form of walled enclosures in the middle of nowhere with storerooms and sleeping quarters, stables, and kitchens. The largest could accommodate hundreds of camels, mules, or horses. The oldest recorded caravansaries were found along the Persian Empire’s Royal Road, stretching some 1600 km (1000 miles) from Sardis to Susa.