Animal tracks through forests and jungles were probably the beginning of man’s roads. They were easier and safer to use than to force new ways through dense undergrowth. The earliest roads made by men for their own use were probably footpaths leading from their shelters to the nearest streams and hunting grounds.

When men began trading with one another, roads became more important. The great overland trade routes across Europe and Asia came into use for the transportation of such things as amber, silk, and precious stones. These were merely tracks and trails well worn by constant use.

Probably the earliest stone-paved road was built in Egypt about 3000 B.C. when the Great Pyramid was built. In order to move the huge stone blocks making up the pyramid, a smooth road of polished stone, about 18 meters wide and 805 meters long, was built.

Short lengths of paved roads were built on the island of Crete about 1500 B.C. The Carthaginians are believed to have built a system of stone-paved roads as early as 500 B.C.

The Romans were the great road-builders of ancient times. Roman wagons and carts had fixed axles and could not make turns. For this reason, the Roman roads were built in straight lines wherever possible. Over a period of about 600 years, the Romans built more than 70,000 miles of surfaced roads which extended over their whole empire. The first and most famous of these paved roads, the Appian Way, was begun in 312 B.C.

In America, some of the Indian nations had reached a high degree of civilization. Over a thousand years ago the Incas of Peru constructed a paved road about 4,000 miles long, from Ecuador to Central Chile. In Yucatan roads built by the Mayas were straight, solidly constructed of stone, and covered with a cement mortar which gave them a smooth, white surface.