In 1994, geologists mapping the stone quarries of Ancient Egypt identified a 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) stretch of limestone and sandstone slabs leading from one basalt quarry to Lake Moeris. Using pottery found at the site, likely left by workers of the quarry, and an ancient worker camp, researchers were able to date the discovery to around 2600 to 2200 BCE, making it the oldest known paved road in the world.
The road was used to transport volcanic basalt rock from the quarry to Lake Moeris, an ancient lake that would have connected to the Nile seasonally at the time, allowing the rock to be carried to Giza by boat. Basalt was used to pave inside mortuary temples at the site, as well as to create royal sarcophagi.
Moving those rocks necessitated the limestone and sandstone road. Egyptologists suggested at the time that the rocks were moved on sleds, perhaps on top of logs placed along the road itself, given that the slabs showed no signs of grooves or wear and tear from contact with the sleds.
The road, as well as being the oldest paved road in the world by around 500 years, is the only road constructed by Ancient Egyptians that we know of. It’s not exactly the most well-constructed road, with workers likely using whichever stones were handy to lay down. In some areas, they attempted to make the stones fit neatly, while in others they were placed far more haphazardly.
“The road probably doesn’t rank with the pyramids as a construction feat, but it is a major engineering achievement,” geologist James Harrell of the University of Toledo said of the discovery at the time, per the LA Times. “Not only is the road earlier than we thought possible, we didn’t even think they built roads.”
There are older roads in the world, though none of these are paved roads. The Sweet Track, a very early Neolithic wooden trackway in Somerset, England, was dated back to 3806 BCE by using dendrochronology, or dating using tree rings.
Source Link: The Oldest Paved Road In The World Transported Volcanic Rock For Royal Sarcophagi
