Romans, one of the greatest civilizations of the classical era, built many roads connecting many provinces of the empire with one another. These roads used to extend from northern England in the north to southern Egypt in the south. The total length of these roads reached 74.564 miles ( 120.000 kilometers ) in the heyday of the empire. The roads were built with technology much more advanced than that of the era and primarily were utilized for the purpose of dispatching troops. There were milestones at particular points along the roads. These milestones featured information like how far Rome was from the location of the milestone, the names of the commander ( s ) who had the road built or repaired and when the roads were built or repaired. Mile, the name for a length measuring unit we use today, is derived from Latin expression milia passuum, meaning one thousand steps. Romans used to place these colossal stone columns we are mentioning above at the side of the roads at the endpoint of each mile. However, the Roman steps we are talking about are a double step considered as single unit. That is, Romans used to consider the combined length of the steps of the right and the left foot a single step while they were measuring lengths during the construction of the roads. In this manner, one thousand steps were more or less equal to 1480 meters. This means that we would be coming across a stone column at the roadside approximately once every 1480 meters if we were walking on an ancient Roman road.

The Maya, probably the most enigmatic Mesoamerican civilization in my opinion, also constructed roads. The roads built by the Maya were called sacbé in Yucatec Maya. This word literally means white road in the language. The plural version of the word is sacbeob. This name is quite reasonable, because of the fact that the Maya roads were constructed with limestone, which is apparently white. The endpoints of the roads were marked and delineated with construction mortar. Sometimes there was a big and ostentatious stele, statue or arch at the end of these roads.

Sacbés were generally built at at a height of 50 cms from the ground. Tiny stones and rubble were placed in the lowest layer; subsequently, this layer was covered with construction mortar or stucco made out of limestone. The sides of the roads were marked with bigger rocks incorporated into the mortar.

Though it sounds extremely trivial and unimportant when elaborated on in the manner above, sacbés bore spiritual significance for Maya society. Solely walking along these roads without doing anything else supposedly symbolized spiritual journey and maturation for the Maya. It must be because of this fact that many sacbés end at a temple or a cenote, which was a place of pivotal significance for the Yucatec Maya in religious terms. John Lloyd Stephens, American diplomat and explorer who played a pivotal role in revealing secrets of the Maya civilization, reported that Maya people walking along sacbés hidden under a dense canopy of the jungle after centuries in early 1840s were murmuring prayers. It is even reported that he discovered a very long and extremely intact sacbé in those years, contrary to his belief sacbés were a glomarization of Spanish conquistadors. Many Spanish scribes of the 16^th and 17^th centuries specified in their notes that they had come across a vast network of sacbés across the Yucatan Peninsula.

It seems we cannot find out the real reason for the construction of the sacbés if we think outside of the supposed spiritual or religious significance. The reason why the Maya, who didn’t use animal power in the transport of the goods, constructed the sacbés at the expense of tremendous manpower is a question not answered properly even in our day. Commerce or sending envoys could be among the reasons for their construction. Some researchers believe that they were built for the purpose of dividing settlements with a population of 55.000 people into at least four districts.

Nevertheless, it is clear that the construction of the sacbés exerted some results. First, sacbés facilitated transport of the goods and and travelling greatly for people. What is more, people living on the route of sacbés were able to engage in commercial activities in a much easier manner; hence, certain groups of people accumulated wealth. Those people accumulating wealth began to have more clout on society in time. This caused a more apparent stratification of society. Finally, the people living on the trajectory of the sacbés had more opportunities to communicate with people of different social and cultural backgrounds and change and improve their frame of reference in this manner.

The most famous sacbé is the one with a length of 300 meters in the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza, which connects El Castillo, the famous Mayan pyramid there, with the Sacred Cenote. The Sacred Cenote is a cenote in the capacity of a very important worshipping site for the Maya before the Hispanic era. The sacbé with a length of 18 kms connecting the Mayan cities of Uxmal and Kabah, located in the Puuc region of the Yucatan Peninsula, is very famous, too. The sacbé between the cities of Coba and Yaxuna has a length of 100 kms. It is also thought that an ancient sacbé with a length of 300 kms used to extend between a Mayan settlement called Ti’ho in western Yucatan Peninsula and the modern city of Puerto Morelos in the eastern portion of the peninsula.

In summary, as enigmatic legacy handed down to us from a mysterious ancient civilization, sacbés are wonders of engineering waiting to be explored further.