Cologne, Germany - A well-preserved segment of a Roman road has been unearthed just one metre below a city street in Cologne, archeologists announced on Tuesday.
So intact is the 700-metre-long stretch of paved roadway that wheel ruts caused by chariots and carts were still clearly visible in the 2 000-year-old roadway.
"It is a prime example of Roman road engineering," a spokesperson for the Cologne municipal archaeological department said. "The paving stones are still in place as are the periphery gutters."
Archaeological evidence indicates the road was still in everyday use in the early 19th Century before finally being covered over by a more modern thoroughfare.
The road linked the Roman colonial outpost at Cologne, known as Colonia Agrippina to the Romans, with the Limes road which in turn led - as did all major roads in those days - directly to Rome. - Sapa-DPA