Facilitator’s Page
For Facilitators of the Caravan Via Egnatia Board Game
Caravan Via Egnatia is an engaging educational board game that brings together geography, history, and citizenship education in one experience. Ideal for classrooms, workshops, and learning settings, it invites students to travel along Europe’s legendary trade route while strengthening collaboration, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
The game is designed for 3–6 players (or up to 12 when playing in pairs). Each box includes a facilitator’s manual and rulebook to guide you step by step. For additional support, a video tutorial as well as digital versions of the manual and rulebook are linked below.
For your reference we added below a concise description of life and traveling in the Ottoman empire back in 1800 AD. You may want to tell the players before or during the game about some of the topics.
Life along Via Egnatia around 1800 AD
The Caravan Via Egnatia game depicts traveling on the Via Egnatia in the Ottoman Empire around 1800 AD through maybe the most ethnically diverse region of the world. Muslims of different creeds, Christians, mainly Orthodox but Catholic too, and large Sephardic Jewish communities in cities like Thessaloniki. Many ethnic groups populated the region: Slavs, Greeks, Turks, Albanians, Vlachs, Sarakatsani, Pomaks, Roma, and Armenians.
Peoples’ world view was different from ours today. It is hard to picture oneself in that era when national states were non-existent. It is even harder for us to imagine to have no notion at all of belonging to a nation. The thought was completely foreign to the people. The Caravan Via Egnatia game will familiarize us with this pre-nationalistic mindset .
Back then identity was defined by family, village, occupation and religion. Asked for who he was someone would say: “ I am an orthodox peasant”. Not: I am Greek or Bulgarian.
Faith governed life. Religious institutions were community centers, in cities often providing education and even jurisdiction. Society was divided by religion. Muslims enjoyed some privileges while all others were classified as dhimmis who had to pay a special tax (jizya). Each group had a fair amount of autonomy, allowing to practise faith and to have their own laws concerning family, marriage, inheritance etc.
Villages and cities
The Ottoman economy was predominantly agrarian. Peasants worked for wealthy landlords or the state. The villages were tight-knit communities where large multi-generation families played a significant role. Faith, traditions, dances, music, and stories shaped the cultural identity of the village.
The cities were home to a cosmopolitan mix of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, though each group maintained distinct communal identities and often lived in separate residential areas. Ottoman urban planning provided many public services: central bazaars, bath houses, water supply, inns for the travelers and kitchens providing free meals for poor citizens. Crafts and local industries, such as textile production, pottery, and weaponry, thrived in towns and small cities.
Coastal cities engaged in trade and shipping. Thessaloniki was the major port on the Via Egnatia connecting mainland with the Mediterranean and beyond.
Traveling along Via Egnatia
The Via Egnatia was used by all kinds of people: traders, merchants with mules and camels carrying their goods, often moving in caravans, farmers, pilgrims, officials on horseback, military personal, postmen, musicians, craftsmen and artists, European diplomats with their escorts, and also explorers documenting landscapes, cultures and ancient ruins.
Traveling could be challenging. Collapsed roads, snow-blocked mountain passes, and lack of maintenance often made it difficult. So-called Derbendci guarded critical points. Local militias and military personnel (Janissaries) patrolled the road.
A caravanserai in Büyükçekmece
Lodging for Travelers
Inns (khan or caravanserai) were spaced along the Via Egnatia offering free food, rest, and security for travelers and their animals. Most khans were financed through a waqf, a fund founded by wealthy Muslims donating property, land, or funds to support public works. A waqf provided the means for the construction, operation, and upkeep of a khan.
The end of Via Egnatia as a trans-Balkan highway
In the early 19th century things started to change. Under the influence of Western European nationalism intellectuals adopted the belief that people who share a common language, culture, or ethnicity should live in an independent nation state.
While the Ottoman state encouraged coexistence, existing tensions between ethnic groups grew due to the weakening of the central power in Istanbul.
Nationalistic aspirations for independence soon led to revolutionary movements. Subsequent wars and newly drawn borders in the early twothousands ended the Via Egnatia as a continuous East-West connection The Via Egnatia was cut into pieces and – after more than two-thousand years – had to relinquish its role of thriving trans-Balkan highway.