Rome’s Appian Way, built in 312 BC, is one of the oldest roads in the world and is being considered for UNESCO World Heritage status.
Today, the partially intact 500-kilometer-long road forms part of a protected archaeological site, having been constructed 2,300 years ago. It stands as ancient Rome’s very first highway.
Appian Way linked Rome to Brindisi in southeast Italy. It was used for transporting goods and supplies in addition to making possible economic trade with Greece, Egypt, and North Africa.
The road was known to the Romans as Regina Viarum or the Queen of Roads. It formed part of a network of roads which linked Rome to many of its more distant settlements. It was the widest and longest road ever built at the time of its construction. Many of the large, flat stones of which the road was constructed are still there today.
The road eventually stopped being used, and sections of the route became covered by farmland, other roads, and modern buildings. It re-emerged into the public eye in 2015 after a journalist working for the newspaper la Repubblica, Paolo Rumiz, set out to walk the route, taking along the hiker Riccardo Carnovalini to help map the path.
In the same year, Italy’s government published its plans to restore the road and encourage visitors to visit the site.
“Today, the ancient Appian Way is not only a big open-air museum started in the 1800s, but it’s also an immense green area, a place where Romans come for leisure time: biking, hiking and visiting monuments, of course,” said Simone Quilici, director of the Ancient Appia Archaeological Park, according to SBS News. “And so, it’s one of the biggest suburban parks in Europe. So, it’s both a monument and a big public park.”
The Appian Way may become a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Now, an advisory panel within the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO, has recommended that the Appian Way be considered for inclusion on its World Heritage List.
Quilici claimed it is a worthy contender.
“The ancient Appian Way was the queen of the roads. It was a big engineering [project], so it deserves, I would say, to be in the World Heritage list. It would be the first ancient Roman road to be in the list,” he said.
He added:
“So, I would say we have everything…for this nomination. Of course, it’s a big challenge. We need to, in some way, demonstrate that we’ll be able to protect this and also to enhance this big monument, longer than 500km from Rome to Brindisi. So it will be also one of the biggest, UNESCO sites here in Italy, for sure.”
“It (the Ancient Appian Way) played a key role in the history of Rome, in the Italian peninsula and the conquering of the Italian peninsula. So, it’s without doubt the most important ancient street built by the Romans,” Professor Giorgio Piras of the University of Rome said in speaking with SBS News.
