 Most seasoned travellers should already be familiar with the incredible efforts of the mighty Roman Empire to build military supply roads to the very corners of their conquered territories. Despite the fact that many of their roads were built before the birth of Jesus Christ, they ran all the way from Rome to the wild and windswept border of England and Scotland!
Although, of course, those country names, being German because they end in “land”, had to wait until the arrival of the English around 425 AD to be introduced.
In British/Roman times the southern part of the main island of Britain was known as Albion and the northern part as Caledonia. At much the same time, here in Spain, probably the “Jewel in the Crown” of the Roman Empire, they built 34 principle roads.
The most famous, and at around 1500 km (940 miles) the longest, was the Via Augusta which ran from Cadiz, then called Gadir, to the Pyrenees and onwards into Gaul, now France.
It had previously been called the Via Hercules but in some very early roadworks, between the years 8 BC to 2BC, it was renovated on the instructions of the Emperor Augustus and subsequently renamed in his honour. There is no information to suggest any major traffic disruption at the time so perhaps the Romans could be persuaded to come back and supervise all roadworks!
The impressive Roman road in the photograph is the Tietar Valley, in the Gredos Mountains, south of Madrid and is at least 1500 years old. Some geographers believe that the Roman roads in Spain remained the best available routes of communication right up until the 1920s!
Certainly King Carlos III felt the same; around 1750 he had many of them repaved rather than build new roads. When the Romans relinquished control of Spain, around 409 AD, they left some 21’000 km (13’125 miles) of major roads. If we accept that these were the motorways of their day, by contrast, China had only 45’400 km (28’375 miles) of motorway in 2007!
There are Roman roads all around us in Southern Spain. Do you know where? If not do you want to go looking with someone who does?
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