The Royal Road was an ancient highway of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, built by Darius I to improve communication across his vast territory, connecting the city of Susa in Persia to Sardis in western Anatolia over a distance of about 2,700 kilometres. The Greek historian Herodotus described the road, with its many staging posts at which royal messengers could exchange tired horses for fresh ones, and he is said to have written that neither snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness stopped these couriers. The journey took a traveller about three months on foot, but royal messengers could do it in a week. The road was used by armies, merchants and officials, and later by Alexander the Great.
Before and after
- 509 BCEOrigins of Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
- c. 509 BCECleisthenes lays the foundations of Athenian democracy
- 6th century BCEConstruction of Parthenon
- c. 500s BCEOrigins of Delhi
- 6th century BCEConstruction of Royal Road
- 6th century BCEConstruction of Bam Citadel
- 6th century BCEOrigins of Judaism
- from 499 BCE to 493 BCEIonian Revolt
- from 499 BCE to 449 BCEGreco-Persian Wars
More in Civilizations & archaeology
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- from 206 BCE to 220 CEHan dynasty
- 200 BCEOrigins of Nazca Lines
- 19 BCEConstruction of Western Wall
- from 375 CE to 568 CEMigration Period
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires.