Quarry road on the Qarunsee
The quarry road on Lake Qarun in Egypt is considered the oldest largely preserved paved road in the world and was added to the list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks in 1996 by the American Society of Civil Engineers with the reference number 183 . The completion of the road was based on the accompanying finds to 2500-2100 BC. Dated, according to another source 2600–2200 BC. BC (late Old Kingdom or First Intermediate Period ).
The road was the first part of the link, over which blocks of dark volcanic rock from a quarry on Lake Qarun were brought over 96 km to the necropolis of Giza near present-day Cairo . The road bridged the 12 km distance from the quarry to the then north-west bank of the lake, which has since declined sharply. From the lake, if the Nile was high enough due to the summer tide to flood the canals to the lake , the blocks could be shipped to Giza .
The street was about 2 m wide and paved with limestone and sandstone slabs, and petrified wood was occasionally used. Since the heavy blocks did not leave any traces of sanding, it is believed that they were stored on sleds that were rolled over logs.
The first parts of the road were discovered in the early 20th century. However, their function only became apparent in the early 1990s when a block was discovered that had been left behind.
Web links
- Lake Moeris Quarry Road. In: asce.org. ASCE , accessed September 7, 2017 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e World's Oldest Paved Road Found in Egypt - NYTimes.com. In: nytimes.com. New York Times , accessed September 8, 2017 .
Coordinates: 29 ° 37 ′ 44.6 ″ N , 30 ° 38 ′ 42.3 ″ E