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rock was popular for funerary uses because it symbolized the dark, lifegiving Nile mud.

Apart from some construction ramps associated with the pyramids, the geologists said, there are no other paved roads known from ancient Egypt. Wheeled wagons were not generally used there until many centuries after this road was built.

Greece

The early Greeks depended primarily on sea travel. There is evidence of the building of special roads for religious purposes and transport about 800 BC, but there is little evidence of substantial road building for travel and transport prior to the Roman system. The Greeks did build a few ceremonial, or “sacred,” roads, paved with shaped stone and containing wheel ruts about 55 inches apart.

5. Find the definitions to the following words (you may use your dictionary if necessary).

6. Try to memorize the words. Close your book and write as many words from the box as you can.

Now use at least 2 words in one sentence. Is it possible for you to form one sentence with all these words?

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7. Look through the texts again and find the related words. What part of speech are they? Give your own examples with the same suffixes.

Pave, elevate, ceremony, available, construct, bitumen, careful.

8. Can you answer the questions? Work in pairs.

1.Who / the / made / first / roads / by / were?

2.For / what / Cretan / building / was / construction / material / roads / used?

3.What / the / oldest / road / paved / is / existing?

4.How / people / long / cover / did / it / to / the / Ephesus / distance / from / take / Susa / to?

5.Egyptians / why / the / their / first / did / roads / build?

6.What were the Greek used their roads for?

7.Way / a / what / Processional / is?

9. Fill in the table and compare your variants with your partner.

Material

Purpose

What can you say about modern road materials and road designation? Has anything changed? Give your examples.

10. What European countries do you know?

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?

11. Read the names and find their Russian equivalents:

12. Find the following words/word combinations in the texts below. It would be nice if you could learn these words by heart.

Dual route, mountain pass, remnant, transverse, fasten, moisture, carrying capacity, conscious, advantage, cement, far-flung, radiate.

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13. Work in groups. Group A is working with The Amber Routes, group В – The Roman roads. Each group has to retell the story to another group (in English). Be attentive.

Ancient roads of Europe

The Amber Routes

During the 2nd millennium BC, trade ways developed in Europe. One route, for example, ran between Italy and Spain via Marseille and nearby Heraclea, close to present-day Avignon. Such ways were used for the movement of flints from Denmark, freestone from Belgium, salt from Austria, lead and tin from England, and amber from northern Europe. By about 1500 BC many of the ways in eastern and central Europe had linked together into an extensive trading network known as the Amber Routes. Four routes have been identified, the first from modern Hamburg southwestward by dual routes through Cologne and Frankfurt to Lyon and Marseille. The second also passed from Hamburg south to Passau on the Danube and then through the Brenner Pass to Venice. The third began at Samland on the East Prussian coast (where amber is still found), crossed the Vistula River at Thorn, and thence continued southeastward through the Moravian Gate to Aquileia on the Adriatic. The fourth, the Baltic-Pontus road, followed the main eastern rivers, the Vistula, Saw, Sereth, Prut, Bug, and Dnieper.

While the Amber Routes were not roads in the modern sense, they were improved at river crossings, over mountain passes, and across wet and swampy areas. A few remnants of these roads survive today. They were constructed by laying two or three strings of logs in the direction of the road on a bed of branches and boughs up to 20 feet wide. This layer was then covered with a layer of transverse logs 9 to 12 feet in length laid side by side. In the best log roads, every fifth or sixth log was fastened to the underlying subsoil with pegs. There is evidence that the older log roads were built prior to 1500 BC. They were maintained in a level state by being covered with sand and gravel or sod. In addition, the Romans used side ditches to reduce the moisture content and increase the carrying capacity.

The Roman roads

The greatest systematic road builders of the ancient world were the Romans, who were very conscious of the military, economic, and administrative advantages of a good road system. The Romans drew their expertise mainly from the Etruscans – particularly in cement technology and street paving – though they probably also learned skills from the Greeks (ma-

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sonry), Cretans, Carthaginians (pavement structure), Phoenicians, and Egyptians (surveying). Concrete made from cement was a major development that permitted many of Rome's construction advances.

The Romans began their road-making task in 334 BC and by the peak of the empire had built nearly 53,000 miles of road connecting their capital with the frontiers of their far-flung empire. Roman roads varied from simple corduroy roads to paved roads using deep roadbeds of tamped rubble as an underlying layer to ensure that they kept dry, as the water would flow out from between the stones and fragments of rubble, instead of becoming mud in clay soils. According to Ulpian, there were three types of roads:

1)viae publicae, consulares, praetoriae or militares;

2)viae privatae, rusticae, glareae or agrariae;

3)viae vicinales.

The first type of road included public high or main roads constructed and maintained at the public expense, and with their soil vested in the state. Such roads led either to the sea, or to a town, or to a public river (one with a constant flow), or to another public road. These roads bear the names of their constructors (e.g. Via Appia, Cassia, Flaminia). Twenty-nine great military roads, the viae militares, radiated from Rome. The most famous of these was the Appian Way. Begun in 312 BC, this road eventually followed the Mediterranean coast south to Capua and then turned eastward to Beneventum, where it divided into two branches, both reaching Brundisium (Brindisi). From Brundisium the Appian Way traversed the Adriatic coast to Hydruntum, a total of 410 miles from Rome.

The second category included private or country roads, originally constructed by private individuals, in whom their soil was vested, and who had the power to dedicate them to the public use. Such roads benefited from a right of way, in favor either of the public or of the owner of a particular estate. Under the heading of viae privatae were also included roads leading from the public or high roads to particular estates or settlements.

The third category comprised roads at or in villages, districts, or crossroads, leading through or towards a village. Such roads ran either into a high road, or into other viae vicinales, without any direct communication with a high road.

14. Can you find the answers to the questions without looking back at the text? If you cannot, ask your group mates help you.

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seems to have been common in the towns in India at the beginning of the Common Era, and the principles of drainage were well known. The crowning of the … and the use of ditches and gutters was common in the towns. Northern and western India in the period 300 to 150 BC had a network of well-built roads. The rulers of the Mauryan empire (4th century BC), which stretched from the Indus River to the Brahmaputra River and from the Himalayas to the Vindhya Range, generally recognized that the … of a great empire depended on the … of its roads. The Great Royal Road of the Mauryans began at the Himalayan border, ran through Taxila, … the five streams of the Punjab, proceeded by way of Jumna to Prayag, and continued to the mouth of the Ganges River. A “Ministry of Public Works” was … for construction, marking, and maintenance of the roads and rest houses and for the smooth running of ferries.

China

China had a … system that paralleled the Persian Royal Road and the Roman road network in time and purpose. Its major development began under Emperor Shih huang-ti about 220 BC. Many of the roads were wide, … with stone, and … with trees; steep mountains were traversed by stonepaved stairways with broad tread sand low steps. By AD 700 the network had grown to some 40,000 kilometres. Traces of a key route near Sian are still … .

The trade route from China to Asia Minor and India, known as the … Road, had been in existence for 1,400 years at the time of Marco Polo's travels (AD 1270 – 90). It came into partial existence about 300 BC, when it was used to bring jade from Khotan (modern Ho-t'ien) to China. By 200 BC it was linked to the West, and by 100 BC it was carrying active … between the two civilizations. At its zenith in AD 200 this road and its western connections over the Roman system constituted the longest road on …

. In Asia the road passed through Samarkand to the region of Fergana, where, near the city of Osh, a stone tower marked the … watershed between East and West. From Fergana the road traversed the valley between the Tien Shan and Kunlun mountains through Kashgar, where it divided and skirted both sides of the Takla Makan Desert to join again at Ansi. The road then wound eastward to Chia-yü-kwan (Su-chou), where it passed through the westernmost gateway (the Jade Gate or Yumen) of the … Wall of China. It then went southeast on the Imperial Highway to Sian and

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eastward to Shanghai on the … Ocean. From Kashgar, trade routes to the south passed over the mountains to the great trading centre of Bactria and to northern Kashmir.

17. Find the synonyms to the words:

digging, show, technique, layer, rule, epoch, usual, regent, city, building, aim, being, connect, entrance, peak.

18. What words are NOT road terms? Why? Form 3 sentences using as more words as possible.

Excavation, brick, bitumen, cement, pipe, drainage, slab, surface, mortar, pavement, marking, stairway, route.

19. Arrange the following prepositions according to the place on the cube. Find the sentences with these prepositions in Ex. 16 and translate them.

IN AT TO FROM BETWEEN

20.Prepare 5 questions on ancient roads and be ready to answer them. Let your partner answer them.

21.Read Ancient roads of South and East Asia once again and find the main points. Discuss them in your group.

22.What is the difference between the Ancient World and the Middle Ages concerning road construction, in your opinion? Try to fill in the chart.

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The Middle Ages

Europe and Asia

At the zenith of the Roman Empire, overland trade joined the cultures of Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, China, and India. But the system of road transport was dependent on the Roman, Chinese, and Mauryan empires, and as these great empires declined in the early Christian era the trade routes became routes of invasion. Except in the Byzantine Empire, road networks fell into centuries of disrepair. Transport relied on pack trains, which could negotiate the badly maintained roads and sufficed to carry the reduced stream of commerce.

The first signs of a road revival came during the reign of Charlemagne late in the 8th century. In the 9th century the Moors established an extensive street network in Córdoba, Spain. The Vikings operated the Varangian Road, a major trade route linking the Baltic and the Middle East via Russia. Further road revival was aided first by the need to service the regular round of trade fairs and then, in the 11th century, by a centralization of power and an increase in religious fervour.

Eventually a commercial revival set in. By the 12th century old cities were reviving and new ones were being built, especially in western Europe. Street paving became a reputable artisan activity, and by the 15th century well-maintained roads bringing food to the cities from their hinterlands became of critical importance. At the same time, wheeled vehicles

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