Roads. How it all started.

http://geofacts.ru/tajny-egipetskix-piramid/#

Most of us give very little thought to the roads we drive on every day, and tend to take them for granted – at least until they are closed for repairs, washed out in a flood and so on. However, only during the past forty years or so have we enjoyed the luxury of a vast, extensive, and well-maintained system of roads accessible to everyone. In the midst of our grumbling about potholes, traffic jams, and incompetent drivers, we forget how fortunate we truly are. Obviously, it was not always the case.

http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/russian/archives/108878/

From the earliest times, one of the strongest indicators of a society’s level of development has been its road system – or lack of one. Increasing populations and the advent of towns and cities brought with it the need for communication and commerce between those growing population centres.

A road built in Egypt by the Pharaoh Cheops around 2500 BC is believed to be the earliest paved road on record – a construction road 1,000 yards long and 60 feet wide that led to the site of the Great Pyramid.

The various trade routes, of course, developed where goods were transported from their source to a market outlet and were often named after the goods which travelled upon them. For example, the Silk Route stretched 8,000 miles from China, across Asia, and then through Spain to the Atlantic Ocean. However, carrying bulky goods with slow animals over rough, unpaved roads was a time consuming and expensive. As a general rule, the price of the goods doubled for every 100 miles they had to travel.

Some other ancient roads were established by rulers and their armies. The Old Testament contains references to ancient roads like the King’s Highway, dating back to 2000 BC. This was a major route from Damascus in Palestine, and ran south to the Gulf of Aqaba, through Syria to Mesopotamia, and finally on to Egypt. Later it was renamed Trajan’s Road by the Romans, and was used in the eleventh and twelfth centuries by the Crusaders.

http://www.razlib.ru/istorija/mosty/p3.php

Around 1115 BC the Assyrian Empire in western Asia began what is believed to be the first organized road-building, and continued it for 500 to 600 years. Since they were trying to dominate that part of the world, they had to be able to move their armies effectively along with supplies and equipment. Their army’s engineer corps laid pontoon bridges and levelled tracks for carts and siege engines.

Later another imperial road, the Royal Road, was being built by the Persians from the Persian Gulf to the Aegean Sea, a distance of 1,775 miles. Around 800 BC, Carthage, on the northern coast of Africa, began to use stones for paving roads. Although they may not have been the first to pave their roads with stones, they were among the earliest, and some people believe that the Romans imitated Carthaginian techniques.

Roman roads

http://pochemy.net/?n=559

Without doubt, the champion road builders were ancient Romans,

who, until modern times, built the world’s straightest, best engineered, and most complex network of roads in the world. At their height, the Roman Empire maintained 53,000 miles of roads, which covered all of England to the north, most of Western Europe, radiated throughout the Iberian Peninsula, and encircled and crisscrossed the entire Mediterranean area. Famous for their straightness, Roman roads were composed of a soil foundation topped by four courses: a bedding of sand or mortar; rows of large, flat stones; a thin layer of gravel mixed with lime; and a thin surface of flint-like lava. Typically they were 3 to 5 feet thick and varied in width from 8 to 35 feet, although the average width for the main roads was from 12 to 24 feet. Their design remained the most sophisticated until the advent of modern road-building technology in the very late 18th and 19th centuries. Many of their original roads are still in use today, although they have been resurfaced numerous times.

http://ezhe.ru/ib/issue1008.html

Under Roman law, the public had the right to use the roads, but the district through which a road passed was responsible for the maintenance of the roadway. This system was effective so long as a strong central authority existed to enforce it. Unfortunately, as the Roman Empire declined so did their roads and their work fell into disrepair all across Europe and Great Britain.

South America

http://www.vseprokosmos.ru/golos34.html

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, several centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Inca Empire began to rise in South America during a period that corresponded with the Middle Ages in Europe. Centred in what is now Peru, the Incas branched out into Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, and, like the Romans, recognized the need for a system of roads that would enable them to extend their conquests and to govern their empire. Interestingly enough, the Incas built their empire without inventing the wheel, without the use of draft animals, and without a written language. Because they had no wheeled vehicles to worry about, their roads could ascend steep inclines via terraces or steps.

http://anton-klyushev.livejournal.com/47998.html

In one place a road going up a steep mountainside was built of 3,000 consecutive stone steps. They also built over swamps, and constructed a causeway 24 feet wide and 8 miles long, which had a paved surface and stone walls. Unfortunately, their well-constructed system of roads assisted in their downfall as the invading Spaniards used the Incas’ own roads to move Spanish armies, weapons, and supplies.

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