Roman roads in Egypt
Egypt was the empire's granary and Rome's roads there were built to extract from it. The Via Hadriana ran along the Red Sea coast, and the desert roads from the Nile to the ports at Myos Hormos and Berenice carried the Indian Ocean trade in spice, ivory and pepper inland. Chains of fortified wells, the hydreumata, made the crossings possible at all.
What to see
The Red Sea road ends at Berenike and Myos Hormos, where excavation has turned up peppercorns from India and Tamil graffiti, evidence of a trade route that ran from the Nile to the Malabar coast. Inland, the imperial quarries at Mons Claudianus and Mons Porphyrites were worked for the granite and porphyry that went into buildings in Rome, and the roads that served them still have their watchtowers.
- Mapped segments
- 384
- Surveyed length
- 16,630 km
- Named roads
- 3
Measured from the Itiner-e survey. Segments by certainty of line: conjectured 308, hypothetical 63, certain 13. A conjectured line is one inferred from evidence either side of it, not a road whose existence is doubted.
Named roads in Egypt
Roads the survey identifies by name here, with the length mapped within Egypt's modern borders. Most ran further.
- Via Hadriana 499 km
- Hodos Myshormitike 172 km
- Via Maris 171 km
What kind of roads
- Main Road 235 segments
- Secondary Road 149 segments