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The Persian Royal Road was an ancient highway reorganized and rebuilt by the Persian
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
 king Darius I of the Achaemenid Empire
Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire was amongst the first Persian Empires that ruled over significant portions of Greater Iran, and followed the Ancient Iranian peoples Median Empire....
 in the 5th century BC. Darius built the road to facilitate rapid communication throughout his very large empire from Susa
Susa

Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian Empire and Parthian empires of Iran, located about 250 km east of the Tigris River.The modern town of Shush, Iran is located at the site of ancient Susa....
 to Sardis
Sardis

Sardis, also Sardes , modern Sart in the Manisa province of Turkey, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the important cities of the Persian Empire, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman Empire, and the metropolis of the province Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine Empire times....
: "centralized rule is the victim of time and distance".






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The Persian Royal Road was an ancient highway reorganized and rebuilt by the Persian
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
 king Darius I of the Achaemenid Empire
Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire was amongst the first Persian Empires that ruled over significant portions of Greater Iran, and followed the Ancient Iranian peoples Median Empire....
 in the 5th century BC. Darius built the road to facilitate rapid communication throughout his very large empire from Susa
Susa

Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian Empire and Parthian empires of Iran, located about 250 km east of the Tigris River.The modern town of Shush, Iran is located at the site of ancient Susa....
 to Sardis
Sardis

Sardis, also Sardes , modern Sart in the Manisa province of Turkey, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the important cities of the Persian Empire, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman Empire, and the metropolis of the province Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine Empire times....
: "centralized rule is the victim of time and distance". Robin Lane Fox has remarked in this context. Mounted couriers could travel 1,677 miles (2,699 km) in seven days; the journey from Susa to Sardis took ninety days on foot. The Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 historian Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
 wrote, "There is nothing in the world that travels faster than these Persian couriers." Herodotus' praise for these messengers—"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor darkness of night prevents these couriers from completing their designated stages with utmost speed."—is the inspiration for the unofficial motto of the United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an Independent agencies of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States....
.

Course of the Royal Road

The course of the road has been reconstructed from the writings of Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
, archeological research, and other historical records. It began in the west in Sardis
Sardis

Sardis, also Sardes , modern Sart in the Manisa province of Turkey, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the important cities of the Persian Empire, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman Empire, and the metropolis of the province Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine Empire times....
 (on the Aegean
Aegean

Aegean may refer to*Aegean Sea*Aegean Islands*Aegean Region, Turkey*Aegean civilization*Tyrsenian languages*Aegean Airlines*Aegean Macedonia, another term for the Macedonia ...
 coast of Lydia
Lydia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkey provinces of Manisa Province and inland Izmir Province....
, about 60 miles east of Izmir
Izmir

Izmir, also once called Smyrna, is Turkey's third most populous city and the country's largest port after Istanbul. It is located along the outlying waters of the Gulf of Izmir, by the Aegean Sea....
 in present-day Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
), traveled east through what is now the middle northern section of Turkey, (crossing the Halys
Halys

Halys may refer to:* The Halys River in Anatolia , Turkish Kizilirmak .* The Battle of Halys which is the first battle in antiquity that is 'datable' with any certainty and took place on May 28 585 BC, between the Medes and the Lydians along the Halys River and it's valley * In the Aeneid, Halys is a Trojan who defends Ae...
 according to Herodotus) and passing through the Cilician Gates
Cilician Gates

The Cilician Gates or G?lek Pass , form the main mountain pass through the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey, connecting the low plains of Cilicia and the Mediterranean coast with the high central plateau of Anatolia....
 to the old Assyria
Assyria

Assyria was a political state centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history....
n capital Nineveh
Nineveh

Nineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq....
 (present-day Mosul
Mosul

Mosul is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some 400 km northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linkin...
, Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
), then traveled south to Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
 (present-day Baghdad
Baghdad

Baghdad is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous. With a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq, and the second largest city in the Arab World....
, Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
). From near Babylon, it is believed to have split into two routes, one traveling northwest then west through Ecbatana
Ecbatana

Ecbatana is supposed to be the capital of Astyages , which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of Nabonidus ....
 and on along the Silk Road
Silk Road

The Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, including North Africa and Europe....
, the other continuing east through the future Persian capital Susa
Susa

Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian Empire and Parthian empires of Iran, located about 250 km east of the Tigris River.The modern town of Shush, Iran is located at the site of ancient Susa....
 (in present-day Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
) and then southeast to Persepolis
Persepolis

Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire during the Achaemenid dynasty. Persepolis is situated northeast of the modern city of Shiraz, Iran in the Fars Province of modern Iran....
.

History of the Royal Road

Because the road did not follow the shortest nor the easiest route between the important cities of the Persian Empire, archeologists believe the westernmost sections of the road may have originally been built by the Assyria
Assyria

Assyria was a political state centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history....
n kings, as the road plunges through the heart of their old empire. More eastern segments of the road, identifiable in present-day northern Iran, were not noted by Herodotus, whose view of Persia was that of an Ionian Greek in the West; stretches of the Royal Road across the central plateau of Iran are coincident with the major trade route known as the Silk Road
Silk Road

The Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, including North Africa and Europe....
.

However, Darius I made the Royal Road as it is recognized today by improving the road bed with a hard-packed gravelled surface, of 6.25 m width and held within a stone curbing at a stretch near Gordium, and connecting the parts together in a unified whole stretching some 1500 miles, primarily as a post road
Post road

A post road is a road designated for the transportation of postal mail. In past centuries only major towns had a post house, and the roads used by post riders or mail coaches to carry mail among them were particularly important ones or, due to the special attention given them, became so....
, with a hundred and eleven posting stations maintained with a supply of fresh horses; a quick mode of communication using relays of swift mounted messengers, the kingdom's pirradazis.

The construction of the road as improved by Darius was of such quality that the road continued to be used until Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 times. A bridge at Diyarbakir
Diyarbakir

Diyarbakir is the largest city in southeastern Turkey. Situated on the banks of the River Tigris, it is the seat of Diyarbakir Province, and has a population of 2.5 million....
, Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
, still stands from this period of the road's use. The road also helped Persia increase long distance trade, which reached its peak during the time of Alexander of Macedon
Alexander of Macedon

Alexander of Macedon may refer to:*Alexander I of Macedon BC), ruled from 498?454 BC*Alexander II of Macedon BC), ruled from 370?368 BC*Alexander III of Macedon , or Alexander the Great, ruled from 336?323 BC...
.

In 1961, under a grant from the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society

The American Philosophical Society is a discussion group founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin as an offshoot of his earlier club, the Junto....
, S. F. Starr traced the stretch of road from Gordium to Sardis, identifying river crossings by ancient bridge abutments.

Cultural references to the Royal Road

Euclid
Euclid

Euclid , floruit 300 BC, also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematics and is often referred to as the Father of Geometry. He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I ....
 is said to have replied to King Ptolemy's request for an easier way of learning mathematics that "there is no royal road to geometry". Charles S. Peirce, in his How to Make Our Ideas Clear (1878), says, "There is no royal road to logic, and really valuable ideas can only be had at the price of close attention." This essay was claimed by William James
William James

William James was a pioneering American psychology and philosophy trained as a medical doctor. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religion experience and mysticism, and the philosophy of pragmatism....
 as instrumental in the foundation of the philosophical school of pragmatism. Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalysis of psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of Psychological repression and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for curing psychopathology through dialogue...
 also famously described dreams as the "royal road to the unconscious".

The phrase was echoed in a modern context in the essay No Silver Bullet
No Silver Bullet

No Silver Bullet - Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering is a widely discussed paper on software engineering written by Fred Brooks in 1986....
 where Fred Brooks
Fred Brooks

Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. is a software engineer and computer scientist, best-known for managing the development of OS/360, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month....
 said of software engineering
Software engineering

Software engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches....
 improvements: "There is no royal road, but there is a road"

See also


  • Persian Corridor
    Persian Corridor

    The Persian Corridor is the name for a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to the Soviet Union during World War II....
  • Baghdad Railway
    Baghdad Railway

    The Baghdad Railway , built from 1903 to 1940, was planned to connect the Ottoman Empire cities of Konya and Bagdad with a new line through modern-day Turkey, Syria and Iraq....
  • Trans-Iranian Railway
    Trans-Iranian Railway

    The Trans-Iranian Railway was a major railway building project started in 1927 and finished in 1939, under the direction of the Persian monarch, Reza Shah, to construct a basic network of railways joining the capital Tehran to the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea....
  • History of Iran
    History of Iran

    History of Iran and Greater Iran consists of the area from the Euphrates in the west to the Indus River and Syr Darya in the east and from the Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in the south....
  • Achaemenid Empire