Roman Empire sponsored road found in Jerusalem
It is not only in our Era that Governments commission the building of roads in their countries. Large roads are important not only for creating safe passages for people but vital for expanding the commercial abilities of a country and promoting growth. Apparently this is something that the Roman Empire was well versed in.
A road leading to Jerusalem from Yago that dates between 200 and 400 AD was found recently in Jerusalem, and it is the first time that such a nicely preserved road like this has been found. The road was eight meters wide and was made of flat stones with curb stones on both sides of the road.
The Roman Empire paid special attention to roads and invested large amount of money to new technologies. Inns, shops and fortresses were built along the roads in order to provide a safe means of travelling both for the civilians and for the movement of the armies. Roman roads ranged from small to big long distance roads (today’s highways). Most of the roads were stone paved and also designed for drainage. The whole Roman roads network was approximately 400,000 km of which about 80,000 km were stone paved. This network was all over the Roman Empire from Italy to Britain to Israel.
The road discovered in Jerusalem was a part of a large roads network leading to Jerusalem which is known through the historical records and later verified through archaeological excavations.
By John Black
