Have you ever wondered why modern roads get riddled with potholes after the first rain, while we can still walk on Roman roads built two thousand years ago? The answer isn't magic, but rather an almost manic obsession with engineering that made Rome the master of the ancient world. They didn't build simple dirt roads, but veritable walls buried deep in the ground, designed to withstand the passage of entire legions and heavy chariots for centuries without yielding an inch to wear and tear.The secret to their durability lay in what wasn't visible to the naked eye, hidden beneath the surface. Before laying those famous polygonal stone slabs, Roman engineers excavated deep trenches to create a multi-layered, stratified foundation. They began with large stones for the foundation, followed by gravel and rubble mixed with lime, and finished with compacted sand. This system allowed for perfect drainage, preventing water from accumulating and destroying the road from within—a technique many modern structures would envy.
Thanks to this immense network of ancient highways, which eventually totaled more than 80,000 kilometers of paved roads, news and armies could travel at breakneck speed for the time. It was the stone internet of the Empire, connecting misty Britain to the deserts of Syria. Today, when we look at those weathered stones, we are seeing living proof that when something is built with a vision of eternity, it can defy time itself.
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