Continued from the previous post, regarding the roads that were built before Lehi left Jerusalem and obviously were the foundation knowledge for the highways and roads built later by the Nephites (3 Nephi 6:8).
While most people believe the Romans built the first roads, such is not the case—the first roads were built long before the Romans, though they are accurately accredited with buiding the best roafs in all of Europe.
Not only were roads built long before the Romans,but so were bridges. In fact, during these early ancient days, bridges were built as early as the Bronze Age, and the people of Greece built wooden bridges to cross rivers or wetlands. Bridge builders of this time also laid stone paths through shallow rivers, sometimes making arches of large, overlapping stones through which the water could flow. The earliest stone bridge was built in 1900 BC in Crete, with large stone bridges appearing in the last millennium BC.
The Widan el-Faras site as seen from the south along the world's oldest paved road between Widan and Qasr el-Sagha. This road was used for transportation of basalt blocks from quarries in antiquity
Roads were extremely important before the Romans during the last millennia BC in the eastern Mediterranean since countries were involved in international trade—all of which were in use and well-traveled in Lehi’s day.
In addition, expanding military empires understood the value of a good road system which made it easier to control their fledging empires as messages and orders could be sent quickly. Consequently, it might be understood that by the time Lehi left Jerusalem, stone roads and stone bridges were fairly well known. Even in Egypt, where roads existed though the physical evidence today is slim and pictorial testimony rare. There are some short stretches of streets and roads which have survived, having lain above the level of the Nile floods, or not reclaimed by the moving sands.
Roads were either mud-brick or stone, such as at Dimai in the Fayum where the temple was reached over a stone paved road during the 4th and 5th dynasties (2500 BC). In Isreal, it speaks of “by the way of the sea,” in Isaiah 9:1 when it reads: “and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations” referring to the road that ran between the Jordan and the sea, that will be filled with glory.”
The Via Maris is an historic road that ran in part along the Israeli Mediterranean coast, turning northward along the lake shore, it passed through Migdal, Capernaum, and Hazor
The United Monarchy (הממלכה המאוחדת) is the name given to the Israelite kingdom of Israel and Judah, during the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, which is traditionally dated between 1047 BC and 930 BC. At this time Lachish, Azekah, and Beth-shemesh sat astride natural routes through the Shephelah and toward the Judean hills. Thus these cities were keys to blocking enemies on the Via Maris from coming into Israel’s heartland.
This Via Maris, or "Way of the Sea," is one of three major trade routes in ancient Israel: 1) the Via Maris, 2) the Ridge Route, and 3) the King's Highway. The Via Maris is a modern name for one of these ancient trade routes, dating from the early Bronze Age, linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia—this road ran along the Mediterranean coast of modern-day Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. In Latin, Via Maris means "way of the sea," a translation of the Greek ὁδὸν θαλάσσης found in Isaiah 9:1 of the Septuagint.
It is situated from the Galilee to the North to Samaria to the South, running through the Jezreel Valley. At the Philistine Plain, the road broke into two branches, one on the coast and one inland (through the Jezreel Valley, the Sea of Galilee, and Dan), which unites at Megiddo ("Armageddon"). The location of Megiddo, which was a very important route for travel and trading city in ancient Israel. The “Way of the Sea” connected the major routes from the Fertile Crescent to Mesopotamia (from Egypt to modern day Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria). The road was the main thoroughfare running north/south from the Sinai along the coastal plain through the Jezreel valley, Beit She’an and on until Damascus.
An ancient road in England dated to 600BC but believed to be as old as 2000BC
An old road in England was anciently called the Old Way, and became known as the Harrow Way, described as the “oldest road in Britain” and probably associated with the ancient tin trade. Archaeological finds date it to 600 BC, but believe it to be in existence since about 2000 BC (Edward Brayley, A topographical history of Surrey, (4), G. Willis, London, 1850, p218; Ivan D. Margary, Roman Ways in the Weald, J. M. Dent, London, 1948, pp260–263). Tin, of course, was an ancient trade metal and an indispensable source of meta needed to make bronze, a most important part of most ancient societies.
All of this is meant to show that roads were well known throughout Israel and were distinct roads as opposed to trails through the Wadi Arabah, and moving stretches of sand from water hole to water hold across the deserts. When Lehi left Jerusalem in 600 BC, the roads along the King’s Highway were distinct as were other roads across the Levant. Numerous ancient states, including Edom, Moab, Ammon and various Aramaean states. Since Lehi had tents and donkeys to carry loads, it is likely he was involved in this trade and would have known about people and events far and wide. The building of roads and highways would have been a topic of discussion of such traders who passed along such information to those with whom they did business.
There is evidence of simple paths, of course, that early travelers used in a network of footpaths that crisscrossed North America long before Europeans arrived. As more physical evidence is uncovered along the Old North Trail, the stories and oral legends of the Blackfoot Indians take on new meaning.
All of this information would have been known to Lehi and likely Nephi, who were well aware of trade routes and these roads used by the caravans between the Sea of Arabia and what is today Iraq. No doubt as they negotiated trade, conversations would have covered where the caravan had come from and where they were headed—and all they had seen and heard along the way.
But where are the roads the Nephites would have built in the North American land of promise model? Where are the highways that stretched long distances from city to city and land to land? Surely, if the Heartland or the Great Lakes theorists are correct, they could show remains of some of these roads and not just footpaths before Colonial times, and before the 1600s.
On the other hand, the roads of Andean Peru are magnificent, running 3,700 miles from Chile to Ecuador, with an intertwining and interconnected network of 24,000 miles of roads and highways. Truly, this Andean road system “led from city to city, and from land to land, and from place to place.”
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