Constructed approximately 4,600 years ago, the Quarry Road – Lake Moeris is the world’s oldest paved road, facilitating the transportation of volcanic stones.
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 several pottery fragments, likely left behind by quarry workers, as well as an ancient camp for laborers. Based on this evidence, the research team determined that the road existed from around 2600 to 2200 BCE, making it the oldest paved road in the world, surpassing the previous record by 500 years.
Quarry Road – Lake Moeris in Egypt. (Photo: IFL Science).
The road was used to transport basalt from the quarry to Lake Moeris, an ancient body of water that seasonally connects to the Nile River, allowing workers to transport stones to Giza by boat. The ancient Egyptians used this stone to pave the interiors of funerary temples and to create royal sarcophagi.
The transportation of basalt created the need for a road made of limestone and sandstone. Egyptologists believe that the ancients moved these stones using sledges, with the sledges placed on logs laid along the road, as the paved surface showed no grooves or wear from sled contact.
Not only is this the oldest paved road in the world, but it is also the only road of its kind built by the ancient Egyptians. It is not the best-constructed road, as workers likely used any convenient stone slabs available for paving. In some sections, they attempted to fit the slabs neatly together, while in others, they were arranged more haphazardly.
“The road may not rival the pyramids in terms of construction marvels, but it is still a significant technical achievement. This road is not only older than we ever thought but we didn’t even know they (the ancient Egyptians) built roads,” said geologist James Harrell from the University of Toledo at the time of the discovery of this ancient structure.
While the world has older roads, none of them are paved. Sweet Track, a wooden trackway in Somerset, England, even dates back to 3806 BCE, during the Neolithic period. Scientists dated the structure using dendrochronology, or dating based on tree ring patterns.
