Royal Road of Persia

The Achaemenid highway from Sardis to Susa that set the template for imperial courier systems.

Overview

Built or organized under Darius I in the 5th century BCE, the road ran about 2,700 kilometers from the Aegean coast of Asia Minor to the Persian heartland, with 111 staging posts recorded by Herodotus. Mounted couriers relayed messages day and night, and Herodotus wrote that neither snow nor rain nor heat kept them from their rounds, words later inscribed on a famous New York post office. The road moved officials, tribute and armies as much as merchandise. Alexander's conquest ended Achaemenid control, but the relay idea influenced every later empire from Rome to the Mongols.