In this study a group of elementary teachers use illustrations, rather than written text, to introduce their students to the peoples and places of the ancient silk routes. The illustrations are from two picture books; "Marco Polo," written by Gian Paolo Cesaerani and illustrated by Piero Ventura (1977), and "We're Riding on a Caravan: An Adventure on the Silk Road" (2005), written by Laurie Krebs and illustrated by Helen Cann. The first book describes the journey of Marco Polo from Italy to China in the 13th century. The second is a child's rhyming book describing the journey of a caravan of Chinese merchants from Xi'an, the ancient capital of China, through the trading centers of western China and Central Asia to the ancient market of Kashgar. A photo analysis worksheet (nara.gov) was adapted to assist the students in studying the illustrations The objective of the activity was for students to construct an understanding of the nature of people, objects, places and activities along the ancient silk routes by using visual information from the book illustrations and applying their own prior experiences to what they see in the illustrations.