Royal Road

The Persian King Street was a historic main street, which was built by the Persian king Darius I in the 5th century BC. Darius had built this road to facilitate rapid communication within his very large empire from Susa to Sardis. His couriers were able to travel as 2699 km in seven days. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote: ". There is nobody in the world that travels faster than these Persian couriers " Herodotus praise for these messengers - "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness keeps them from getting them assigned task with the greatest possible to do speed " - was the template for the unofficial motto of the postman.

Course

The course of the road was reconstructed on the basis of Herodotus' writings, archaeological research and other historical evidence. She began in the west in Sardis (about 95 km east of Izmir in modern Turkey), actually already in Ephesus, led eastward through the central northern area of modern Turkey to the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh (now Mosul, Iraq ), and further south to Babylon (90 km south of Baghdad, Iraq). It is believed that the route announced in the near Babylon, one arm northwest through Ecbatana and along the Silk Road that ran other further east through the future Persian capital Susa ( in present-day Iran) and then southeast to Persepolis.

History

As the road followed neither the shortest nor the easiest route between the major cities of the Persian Empire, archaeologists suspect that the western sections of the road were originally created by Assyrian kings, as the road runs through the heartland of their ancient empire. More easterly sections of the road ( in what is now northern Iran) in accordance with the large, well-known as the Silk Road trade route.

Darius I put the royal road to so as it is known today. He improved the substructure and joined the sections together to form a unified whole, especially as the basis of the fast message traffic using the royal pirradaziš (messenger ).

The improved design of Darius the road was of such high quality that it was in use until the Roman period. A bridge from this period is obtained from Diyarbakır (Turkey).

An important role was played by the Persian King Street for the campaign of Alexander the Great, who conquered the Persian Empire, following the road.

Cultural quotes

From Euclid, the anecdote is told that he should have to the question of Pharaoh Ptolemy I for an easier way to learn mathematics, replied: " There is no royal road to geometry ." This phrase has been revived in the modern context in the essay No Silver Bullet where Fred Brooks said on the improvement of software development: "There is no silver bullet, but there is a way. "