The Romans Built Over 250,000 Miles of Roads. It Looks Insane as a Modern Day Subway Map.

As you learned in history class, the Romans built a very vast empire. One of their greatest feats was the intricate road system that they crafted completely by hand. For modern day minds to get a better grasp on just how impressive their road system is, cartographer Sasha Trubetskoy reimagined it as a subway style map. After strenuous research and a lot of creativity it’s finally complete. It’s pretty amazing, right? (Click the image to see it in full!)

“As a geography and data nerd, I make maps in my free time, inspired by the world around me—whatever happens to be on my mind,” Trubetskoy said.

If you look closely you can see that some of the road names are ones that still exist but have just been renamed, such as Via Appia and Via Domitia. For others, that don’t have historic names on record, Trubetskoy had to get a little more creative. To name a few, Via Aquitania for the road connecting Burdigala (Bordeaux) and Narbo (Narbonne), Via Claudia for a road built by Claudius, and Via Maris referring to an ancient trade route whose historic name isn’t known anymore.

“The biggest creative element was choosing which roads and cities to include, and which to exclude. There is no way I could include every Roman road, these are only the main ones,” said Trubetskoy. “I tried to include cities with larger populations, or cities that were provincial capitals around the 2nd century.”

The map stretches from the Middle East up to France and down to parts of western Africa. It might not look as complicated to navigate as the New York City Subway, but when you take into account the distance it covers, it’s very impressive.

Want more road facts? These are the best, worst, and deadliest roads in America.