The oldest paved road in the world

Egypt Built some 4,600 years ago, the Moeris Quarry-Lake Road is the world's oldest paved road, helping to transport volcanic rock.

In 1994, while mapping the quarries of ancient Egypt, geologists discovered a 12-kilometer-long road paved with limestone and sandstone, leading from a basalt quarry to Lake Moeris. Here, they found a number of pottery, likely left by quarry workers, and an ancient camp for workers. Based on this, the team determined that the road existed from around 2600 to 2200 BC, making it the world's oldest paved road, beating the previous record by 500 years.

The road was used to transport volcanic basalt from the mines to Lake Moeris, an ancient lake that was connected to the Nile River seasonally, allowing workers to ferry the stone to Giza by boat. The ancient Egyptians used the stone to pave the insides of mortuary temples and to make royal coffins.

The transportation of basalt stones led to the need to build a road using limestone and sandstone. Egyptologists believe that the stones were transported on sledges placed on logs laid along the road, as the paving stones had no grooves or wear marks from contact with the sledges.

Not only is it the oldest paved road in the world, it’s also the only one of its kind built by the ancient Egyptians. It’s not the best-built road, as the workers likely just used whatever stones were available. In some sections, they managed to fit the stones neatly together, but in others, they were more haphazardly laid out.

"The road may not be on par with the pyramids in terms of engineering marvels, but it is still a major engineering achievement. Not only is this road older than we thought, we didn't even know they (the ancient Egyptians) built it," said geologist James Harrell of the University of Toledo at the time of the discovery.

There are older roads around the world, but none of them are paved. Sweet Track, a wooden path in Somerset, England, dates back to 3806 BC, during the Neolithic period. Scientists determined its age using dendrochronology, or counting the growth rings of trees.

Thu Thao (According to IFL Science )

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