The book is devoted to roads, their origin and development throughout the centuries. Their history started along with the appearance of humans, their first paths, first attempts to expand the borders of their habitat. The chronicles of road connections should be considered as the history of humankind in the spatial domain at the crossroads of which the fates of nations and cultures converged and intertwined. The appearance of roads is directly related to the invention o...

In those distant times, traveling was always an unsafe business, so every merchant had to consider the risks of it. The road was rarely even, not to mention picturesque. It typically ran through a desert, often stony, with camels’ skeletons strewn all around—eerie marks, indeed, but useful for any traveler to use them for road signs. Piercing cold in winter and unbearable heat in summer. Ever-nagging thirst, fostered by the need to conserve water. Constant anticipation o...