Excavation reveals 1,800-year-old Roman road in Israel

JERUSALEM, June 25 (UPI) -- Archaeologists in Israel say they've uncovered a section of a 1,800-year-old Roman road that once ran from Jerusalem to the ancient port city of Jaffa.

The road was discovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Israeli-Arab neighborhood of Beit Hanina in northern Jerusalem during excavations in advance of the installation of a drainage pipe, the Jewish Daily Forward reported Tuesday.

The presence of badly worn curbstones indicates the road was heavily used and underwent several periods of repair, the archaeologists said.

"The Romans attached great importance to the roads in the empire," excavation director David Yeger said. "They invested large sums of money and utilized the most advanced technological aids of the period in order to crisscross the empire with roads."

Other stretches of the road had been discovered previously by the Antiquities Authority but the section recently unearthed was by far the best preserved, Yeger said.