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That time I visited a Roman fortress in England and realized how much we take paved roads for granted
I was on a trip to Hadrian's Wall last summer and it hit me how different Europe would be if the Romans never built those straight roads. Like, my GPS was struggling to find paths between these tiny villages that are still connected by Roman-era routes 1,800 years later. The guide said something like 'every major road in Britain starts with a Roman foundation' and I just stood there thinking about how much trade and travel depended on that network. Imagine if we all still used muddy cart tracks instead of highways. Makes you wonder how many modern cities would even exist without Roman engineering.
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lilya7618d ago
Used to roll my eyes at Roman road hype. Totally changed my mind after walking one.
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kimmurphy brings up a fair point about walking those roads with heavy loads. Roman roads were built straight and solid for military movement, not really for comfort if you were on foot carrying stuff. I get the fascination with their engineering, but people act like Rome personally invented paved roads when civilizations in Mesopotamia had stone-paved streets way before. And plenty of modern cities grew up around rivers and harbors, not just Roman roads. It's cool to think about, but I think people romanticize it a bit too much.
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