20 Forgotten Roads and Highways That Once Connected the World
Before our sleek modern highways, a web of ancient roads linked distant civilizations. These weathered paths moved more than goods—they spread ideas, cultures, and innovation.
Many have faded away, victims of political shifts, changing trade patterns, and new technologies. Here are 20 forgotten roads and highways that once connected distant corners of the world.
The Silk Road
The Silk Road wasn’t just one path but a sprawling network—stretching over 4,000 miles from China to Mediterranean shores. For 1,500+ years, merchants hauled silk, spices, and metals while religions and philosophies tagged along for the ride.
Maritime trade in the 15th century slowly rendered these routes obsolete. You’ll find only fragments now—scattered across Central Asia’s harsh deserts—though its cultural impact lives on in languages, cuisines, and art forms spanning continents.
The Appian Way
Built in 312 BCE, the Appian Way was Rome’s engineering marvel—a highway connecting Rome to Brindisi in southeastern Italy. Its clever drainage systems and fitted stone paving have withstood 2,300 years of footsteps, hooves, and wheels.
Tourists still wander preserved sections near Rome, but many distant stretches have vanished—swallowed by modern construction or quietly reclaimed by olive groves and farmland.
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The Grand Trunk Road
Stretching nearly 1,600 miles from Bangladesh through India to Pakistan—this ancient highway served as the Indian subcontinent’s primary artery for centuries. First built around 300 BCE under the Maurya Empire, successive rulers expanded it to control trade and troop movements.
Modern highways now shadow its historic route, while original sections have devolved into local streets or disappeared altogether, their former grandeur hard to imagine.
The King’s Highway
This ancient trade path ran from Egypt through the Levant to Syria—functioning as a vital route for thousands of years. It appears in biblical texts as a road where armies and traders crossed paths across shifting empires.
The original route has largely vanished—though modern roads in Jordan and Israel roughly follow its general direction. Archaeological sites along the way offer glimpses into its historical significance.
The Old Spanish Trail
Connecting Santa Fe to Los Angeles across 700 miles of brutal terrain—this route became a commercial lifeline in the early 19th century. Mule trains hauled woolen goods westward and returned with prized California horses.
After the Mexican-American War ended, railroads delivered the final blow to this arduous path. Nowadays you’ll spot just scattered markers where this important route once crossed the unforgiving southwestern landscape.
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The Burma Road
Hastily constructed during World War II, this 717-mile route linked Lashio in Burma to Kunming in China—providing a lifeline after Japanese forces blocked coastal access. Workers completed it in just nine months, mostly by hand in mountains that engineers called impossible.
Tropical weather claimed sections after the war ended. Some segments became modern highways, yet others completely disappeared beneath encroaching jungle and landslides.
The Santa Fe Trail
Between 1821 and 1880, this path carried traders and settlers across 800 miles of prairie and desert—connecting Missouri to the markets of Santa Fe. Wagon ruts remain visible in places like Fort Union National Monument.
The trail’s importance vanished when railroads reached New Mexico, making the months-long journey unnecessary almost overnight. What once took weeks can now be driven in hours, with most travelers unaware they’re following historic pathways.
The Inca Road System
The Qhapaq Ñan—or Inca Road System—covered an incredible 24,000+ miles through six modern South American countries. Built for foot traffic and llama caravans—never wheeled vehicles—these paths included stone staircases cutting up mountainsides and rope bridges spanning terrifying gorges.
Spanish conquest led to their neglect, yet impressive sections remain in remote Andean regions. UNESCO now protects these engineering feats that once bound an empire together.
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The Nakasendō
During Japan’s Edo period, the Nakasendō wound through central Japan’s mountains for about 310 miles—linking Edo (Tokyo) with Kyoto. Travelers rested at 69 post stations along this inland route, which offered safer winter passage than coastal alternatives.
Railroad construction in the late 1800s made much of it obsolete. Some segments—particularly in the Kiso Valley—remain beautifully preserved, drawing tourists seeking Japan’s pre-industrial past.
U.S. Route 66
Perhaps history’s most romanticized discontinued highway—Route 66 stretched 2,448 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles. Known as “America’s Main Street,” it supported countless small towns and embedded itself in popular culture.
The Interstate Highway Act ultimately led to its replacement with faster, more efficient roads. Though officially decommissioned in 1985, surviving segments continue as local roads or tourist attractions, drawing nostalgic travelers from worldwide.
The Great North Road
This medieval highway linked London to Edinburgh and York, roughly following the earlier Roman Ermine Street. For centuries, it served as the main connection between England and Scotland, carrying everything from royal processions to mail coaches.
Most of its path was incorporated into the A1, Britain’s longest numbered road. Some original segments now exist as quiet country lanes, while others have disappeared completely beneath modern developments and farmland.
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The Amber Road
For over three millennia, this trading network carried Baltic amber from Northern Europe to Mediterranean civilizations. Multiple pathways developed as amber became valued for both decorative and medicinal purposes.
The trade gradually declined during the Middle Ages as demand shifted toward other luxury goods. Today, this once-important commercial route exists only in archaeological findings and museum exhibits showcasing amber artifacts from long-vanished societies.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail
This intricate network of jungle paths, tunnels, and roads ran from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War. Despite constant bombing, the trail moved up to 500 tons of supplies daily to support North Vietnamese forces.
Postwar development transformed sections into modern highways, while remote segments reverted to jungle. Rusting military equipment provides the only evidence of its former strategic importance in a conflict that reshaped Southeast Asia.
The Oregon Trail
Stretching nearly 2,000 miles, this trail carried about 400,000 settlers westward from Missouri to Oregon’s Willamette Valley between 1840 and 1869. The Transcontinental Railroad’s completion made this grueling wagon journey unnecessary.
Today, deep ruts carved by countless wagon wheels remain visible across plains and mountains. These silent witnesses to America’s westward expansion are preserved in national historic sites, reminding visitors of journeys that transformed a continent.
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Threads Through Time
These forgotten highways aren’t just abandoned routes but windows into how humans have always connected across vast distances. From simple footpaths to sophisticated stone roads to early automobile routes, each represents its era’s solution to our fundamental need for connection.
While our modern transportation networks have made many obsolete, their legacy continues in cultural exchanges they enabled and communities that grew along their paths. When you drive today’s highways, you’re often following ancient pathways—proof that our drive to connect remains one of humanity’s defining qualities.
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