Miletus Sacred Way
About
The processional road out of Miletus's southeast gate, lined by an elegant Ionic colonnade, that led pilgrims 17 kilometers south to the oracle sanctuary at Didyma. Statues of seated priests and sphinxes once lined its route. In 117 CE it was still walked each year in festival processions honoring Apollo. Coordinates are approximate, marking the Ionic Stoa at its city-side start.
What happened here
The surface is cambered, drained on both sides, and built to be repaired rather than to last forever. Milestones give the distance to the nearest town and the name of the emperor who last paid for resurfacing. Traffic is mostly feet and hooves; wheeled freight is slow and heavy and, in some towns, banned during daylight. Official messengers use the state relay and change horses at posting stations set roughly a day apart, which is what makes the empire governable. Everyone else walks about twenty miles a day and stops at an inn of doubtful quality. Tombs, shrines and roadside bars line the approaches to any town. Bandits are a real risk on quiet stretches and the army patrols the worst of them.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →