Historic roads and trails


Historic roads are paths or routes that have historical importance due to their use over a period of time. Examples exist from prehistoric times until the early 20th century. They include ancient trackways, long-lasting roads, important trade routes, and migration trails. Many historic routes, such as the Silk Road, the Amber Road, and the Royal Road of the Persian Empire, covered great distances and their impact on human settlements remain today.
The Post Track, a prehistoric causeway in the valley of the River Brue in the Somerset Levels, England, is one of the oldest known constructed trackways and dates from around 3800 BCE. The world's oldest known paved road was constructed in Egypt some time between 2600 and 2200 BC.
The Romans were the most significant road builders of the ancient world. At the peak of the Roman Empire there were more than of roads, of which over were stone-paved. Another empire, that of the Incas of pre-Columbian South America, also built an extensive and advanced transportation system.
Much later historic roads include the Red River Trails between Canada and the US, from the 19th century. Such pioneer trails often made use of ancient routes created by indigenous people.

Africa

The history of transport in Africa includes some of the earliest paved roads in the world, as well as vast trans-continental trade networks that operated for millennia without formal paving.

Ancient Egypt

The world's oldest known paved road, the Lake Moeris Quarry Road, is located in Faiyum, Egypt. Dating to the Old Kingdom period, the road was used to transport massive blocks of basalt from quarries to a quay on the shores of Lake Moeris, from where they were shipped to Giza for pyramid construction. The road covers a distance of 12 km and was constructed using slabs of sandstone and limestone, with some sections utilizing petrified wood.
Later, the Via Hadriana was constructed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. It connected Antinoöpolis on the Nile river to the Red Sea port of Berenice Troglodytica, facilitating trade with India and the Horn of Africa.

Horn of Africa

In the Horn of Africa, the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a sophisticated network of trade routes connecting the interior highlands to the Red Sea.
  • The Adulis-Aksum Route: The most significant ancient artery was the route connecting the port city of Adulis to the imperial capital at Aksum. This 8-day caravan journey was a vital link in the global trade network connecting the Roman Empire and India. The route facilitated the export of African ivory, gold, and obsidian, and was described in detail in the 1st-century Greco-Roman text Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.
  • Salt Caravan Routes: Ancient trails connected the Danakil Depression to the Ethiopian highlands. These routes were used for centuries by caravans to transport rock salt bars, which served as currency throughout the region. The difficult ascent from the depression to the highlands required established paths that remained the primary logistical highway for the region well into the 20th century.

    Trans-Saharan Trade Routes

While not paved in the modern sense, the Trans-Saharan trade routes functioned as permanent highways for the exchange of gold, salt, ivory, and cloth between North Africa and the Sahelian kingdoms. These routes were strictly defined by the location of oases and wells.
  • The Darb al-Arba'in was a famous camel track connecting the Nile Valley to the Darfur region in Sudan. It was used from the Old Kingdom of Egypt until the 19th century to trade livestock, spices, and slaves.
  • The Garamantian Routes: The Garamantes, a civilization in the Fezzan, developed a complex network of trade routes through the Sahara as early as 500 BC. They utilized chariots and later camels to control trade between the Roman Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa.

    Roman North Africa

The Roman provinces in North Africa possessed an extensive road network comparable to that of Europe, built to facilitate military movement and the transport of grain.

China

The Silk Road was a major trade route between China and India, Europe, and Arabia. It derives its name from the lucrative trade in silk carried out along its length, beginning in the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty expanded the Central Asian section of the trade routes around 114 BCE through the missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoy Zhang Qian. The Chinese took great interest in the safety of their trade products and extended the Great Wall of China to ensure the protection of the trade route.
Prior to the Silk Road an ancient overland route existed through the Eurasian Steppe. Silk and horses were traded as key commodities; secondary trade included furs, weapons, musical instruments, precious stones and jewels. This route extended for approximately. Trans-Eurasian trade through the Steppe Route precedes the conventional date for the origins of the Silk Road by at least two millennia.
See also the Northern Silk Road, the Southern Silk Road: Through Khotan, Tea Horse Road.
File:明月峡古栈道遗址照片.JPG|left|thumb|Reconstructed ancient cliff path of Mingyue Gorge, northern Sichuan, China, part of the Shudao road system
The Shudao, or the "Road to Shu", is a system of mountain roads linking the Chinese province of Shaanxi with Sichuan, built and maintained since the 4th century BC. Technical highlights were the gallery roads, consisting of wooden planks erected on wooden or stone beams slotted into holes cut into the sides of cliffs. The roads join three adjacent basins separated and surrounded by high mountains. Like many ancient road systems, the Shu Roads formed a network of major and minor roads with different roads being used at different historical times. However, a number of roads are commonly identified as the main routes.
Image:Asahina kiridoshi -03.jpg|thumb|right|Kamakura Kaidō, Japan

Japan

were roads in Japan dating from the Edo period. They act important roles in transportation like the Appian way of ancient Roman roads. Major examples include the Edo Five Routes, all of which started at Edo. Minor examples include sub-routes such as the Hokuriku Kaidō and the Nagasaki Kaidō.
Kaidō, however, do not include San'yōdō, San'indō, Nankaidō and Saikaidō, which were part of the even more ancient system of Yamato government called Gokishichidō. This was the name for ancient administrative units and the roads within these units, organized in Japan during the Asuka period, as part of a legal and governmental system borrowed from the Chinese.
Many highways and railway lines in modern Japan follow the ancient routes and carry the same names. The early roads radiated from the capital at Nara or Kyoto. Later, Edo was the reference, and even today Japan reckons directions and measures distances along its highways from Nihonbashi in Chūō, Tokyo.

Indian subcontinent

The Grand Trunk Road in the Indian subcontinent was the main road from modern day Bangladesh, through what is now India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. A route since antiquity, it was constructed into a coherent highway by the Maurya Empire in 300 BC. Soon after, the Greek diplomat Megasthenes wrote of his travels along the road to reach Hindu kingdoms in the 3rd century BC After invading India over 1,500 years later, Mughals extended the Grand Trunk Road westwards from Lahore to Kabul crossing the Khyber Pass. The road was later improved and extended from Calcutta to Peshawar by the British rulers of colonial India. For many centuries, the road has acted as a major trade route and facilitated travel and postal communication. The Grand Trunk Road remains under use for transportation in India. The Khyber Pass was an all-season mountain pass connecting Afghanistan to western Pakistan.
Brick-paved streets appeared in India as early as 3000 BC.

Europe

Except for Roman roads, European pathways were rarely in good shape and depended on the geography of the region. In the early Middle Ages, people often preferred to travel along elevated drainage divides or ridgeways rather than in the valleys. This was due to thick forests and other natural obstacles in valleys.
The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber from coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Prehistoric trade routes between Northern and Southern Europe were defined by the amber trade. As an important commodity, sometimes dubbed "the gold of the north", amber was transported overland by way of the Vistula and Dnieper rivers to the Mediterranean area from at least the 16th century BC. The breast ornament of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen contains large Baltic amber beads. The quantity of amber in the Royal Tomb of Qatna, Syria, is unparalleled for known second millennium BC sites in the Levant and the Ancient Near East. From the Black Sea, trade could continue to Asia along the Silk Road.
Hærvejen ran from Viborg, Denmark through Flensburg to Hamburg. The road runs more or less along the watershed of the Jutland Peninsula, known as the Jyske Højderyg, similar to the ridgeways in England. By using this route rivers were avoided, or fords used, close to the rivers sources. Over time by this route was improved with paved fords, embankments and bridges. Concentrations of mounds, defensive ditches, settlements and other historic landmarks can be found along the road and sections of it can be traced back to 4000 BC.

Roman roads

were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. They ranged from small local roads to broad, long-distance highways built to connect cities, major towns and military bases. These major roads were often stone-paved and metaled, cambered for drainage, and flanked by footpaths, bridleways and drainage ditches. They were laid along accurately surveyed courses, and some were cut through hills, or conducted over rivers and ravines on bridgework. Sections could be supported over marshy ground on rafted or piled foundations.
At the peak of Rome's development, no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the capital, and the late Empire's 113 provinces were interconnected by 372 great roads. The whole comprised more than of roads, of which over were stone-paved. In Gaul alone, no less than of roadways are said to have been improved, and in Britain at least. The courses of many Roman roads survived for millennia; some are overlaid by modern roads.