Roman roads in Jordan
The Via Nova Traiana is the defining Roman road of Jordan, built between AD 111 and 114 to run the length of the new province of Arabia Petraea from Bostra to the Red Sea at Aila. It followed the line of the far older King's Highway, and it carried the incense trade north from Arabia through Petra.
What to see
Jerash is among the best-preserved Roman provincial cities anywhere: an oval forum, two theatres, a colonnaded cardo with the ruts of Roman cartwheels still cut into the paving. Milestones of the Via Nova Traiana survive along the desert highway south, and Umm el-Jimal in the basalt country to the north-east is an almost intact late-Roman town.
- Mapped segments
- 140
- Surveyed length
- 2,080 km
- Named roads
- 3
Measured from the Itiner-e survey. Segments by certainty of line: conjectured 81, certain 51, hypothetical 8. A conjectured line is one inferred from evidence either side of it, not a road whose existence is doubted.
Named roads in Jordan
Roads the survey identifies by name here, with the length mapped within Jordan's modern borders. Most ran further.
- Via Nova Traiana 442 km
- Incense Road 78 km
- Darb el-Rasif 25 km
What kind of roads
- Secondary Road 77 segments
- Main Road 63 segments