Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Syrian sources: The Israeli occupation has begun withdrawing from the areas it infiltrated last night in the Quneitra countryside.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Massive bombings in eastern Gaza, the second within half an hour, and its sound was heard from central area.
Russian air defense units destroyed a drone that was heading toward Moscow.
Maduro: Tomorrow, a business meeting will be held bringing together hundreds of entrepreneurs from advanced Russian industries with hundreds of Venezuelan businesspeople.
Maduro: In the face of threats, Trinidad and Tobago agreed to suspend all effects of the energy agreement and everything that had been agreed upon in that regard.
Maduro: It’s time to make a choice, either stand with the warmongers who want death and violence, or stand with life.
Maduro: They want our wealth. This is not about drug trafficking, and they know it.
Maduro: Everyone in the world knows that what the economic elite ruling the United States seeks today is Venezuela’s oil, gas, and gold.
Maduro: The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago is complicit and promoting war due to her personal, physical, mental, and moral weaknesses.
President Nicolás Maduro: A series of arrests have been carried out against what could be a group of mercenaries trained and funded by the CIA.

Rome archaeologists search for start of Appian Way

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 27 Jan 2023 19:18
4 Min Read

Archaeologists in Rome look for the starting point of the Appian Way, the strategic highway for the Roman Empire, which will hopefully become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

  • x
  •  The search for the first mile of the Appian Way has so far uncovered relics from different periods (Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)
    The search for the first mile of the Appian Way has so far uncovered relics from different periods (Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)

All roads lead to Rome, as the saying goes, and the most distinguished one is the Appian Way, the strategic highway for the Roman Empire, which will hopefully become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  

Roman statesman Appius Claudius Caecus started a paved road of more than 500 km (311 miles) in 312 BC, the "Via Appia." It is an archaeological treasure trove, and a current excavation might hopefully lead to the actual starting point of the road in Rome.  

The artery that leads south to the key Brindisi port at Italy's heel gave a gateway to the eastern Mediterranean, especially Greece, and was strategically important for the armies and merchants of a quickly expanding Rome.  

Archaeologists showed off progress this week in their attempt to dig deep enough to find the beginning of the road, hidden far beneath Rome's Baths of Caracalla, built around five centuries after the Appian Way. 

"What we see today is the result of an excavation that began in July with the central goal of finding clues to the location of the first section of the Appian Way," said archaeologist Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani.

The earliest section of the road provides "the most problems regarding the precise and exact location", the professor at Roma Tre University cautioned.  

Building the Appian Way required laborious engineering, starting with the land leveling, ditches, and canals building, and road surfacing with gravel and heavy stone, to post offices and inns building needed for the support of the thousands of soldiers and merchants headed southward.    

Today, wandering along the Appian Way means taking a trip through the past.  

Related News

Bomb targets investigative journalist Sigfrido Ranucci’s car near Rome

Italy witnesses massive pro-Palestine protests, strikes

Spectacular monuments sit alongside ancient catacombs and churches, old decaying tombstones of Roman families, and leafy villas. One example is the first century BC tomb of a consul's daughter, Cecilia Metella.

Not only the Appian Way casts light on the Roman Republic and later Roman Empire, but also on life and death in the Middle Ages with its pilgrimage shrines and crypts.  

The road gives a glimpse of modern architectural wonders, like the luxurious villas owned by Italy's rich and popular, including actress Gina Lollobrigida and media tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi.  

Earlier this month, Italy presented its bid for the Appian Way to UNESCO. The country already has 58 sites recognized as World Heritage Sites, the most of any country, including entire historical city centers, like Rome, Florence, and Venice, in addition to archaeological areas like the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum.    

To locate the starting point of the Appian Way, work is being carried out some eight meters under the ground and has so far been complicated by groundwater.  

Digging in higher strata of ground has nevertheless found relics from different periods, like a marble bust from the second century AD and an early papal square coin, minted between 690 and 730.

Fragments of glass and ceramics, mosaics, and bits of amphora have also been found by archaeologists. 

The excavation has so far reached residential or commercial structures dating to Emperor Hadrian, who died in 138 AD.  

Archaeologist Daniel Manacorda said the ongoing excavation had already reached the point of "late ancient Rome, the one that began to live in the ruins of ancient Rome".

"If we could continue to dig deeper, we would find archaic Rome," he said. 

  • Rome
  • Italy
  • Greece
  • Mediterranean Sea
  • UNESCO

Most Read

'Israel’s Digital Iron Dome: Weaponizing the web against Palestine

'Israel’s Digital Iron Dome: Weaponizing the web against Palestine

  • Technology
  • 24 Oct 2025
Arab League chief exposes secret US deal shielding 'Israel’s' nukes

Arab League chief exposes secret US deal shielding 'Israel’s' nukes

  • Politics
  • 27 Oct 2025
Abu Hamza, the spokesperson for the Al-Quds Brigades, during a speech televised on October 22, 2025 (Al-Quds Brigades Military Media)

Al-Quds Brigades' Abu Hamza mourns leaders, vows continued resistance

  • Politics
  • 22 Oct 2025
US missionary kidnapped in Niger capital, suspected taken toward Mali

US missionary kidnapped in Niger capital, suspected taken toward Mali

  • Africa
  • 23 Oct 2025

Coverage

All
War on Gaza

Read Next

All
Delta Air Lines flight lands at Harry Reid International Airport, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Las Vegas (AP)
Politics

Nearly 3,800 US flights disrupted amid ongoing government shutdown

FILE - The Amazon logo is pictured at the Amazon Robotic Sorting Fulfillment Center in Madison County, Miss., Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Economy

Amazon to cut 30,000 jobs in largest layoff in company history

Eurofighter Typhoon Spain's Air Force fighter jets fly above the military parade marking 'Día de la Hispanidad', or Hispanic Day, in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP)
Politics

UK sells 20 Eurofighter jets to Türkiye in £8bn defense agreement

Smoke billows after drone strikes by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeted the northern port in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, Sudan, May 6, 2025 (AP)
Politics

RSF tighten El Fasher siege as Sudan risks fragmentation: Reuters

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS