Catherine and Roman stone roads

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Not many people know that once in the 18th century the so-called Vladimirskaya road passed, going from Moscow through Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Vasilsursk, Kozmodemyansk, Cheboksary, Sviyazhsk to Kazan, and then to Siberia, which, according to official history, was built in the middle XVI century. In the 18th century, under Catherine II, the road improved. This road is more or less known as the Catherine tract.

1. The road was laid during the reign of Catherine II for postal communication between Kazan and Orenburg. It is used to this day by residents of the Sharlyk region. One of the sections of the Ekaterininskaya road (its other name is Kazan tract) divides the village of Yuzeevo in half.

An example from the official history. The old Catherine tract runs through the village of Fomino. Two sections of the cobblestone road have survived: Akhunovo-Fomino, near the Uysky pine forest, about 2.3 km and Larino-Filimonovo - 0.7 km.

By order of Catherine, the construction of a paved road to Siberia passed through this area. The road went through Verkhneuralsk, Karagayka, Akhunovo, Fomino, Kulakhty, Kundrava, Chebarkul. In the 18th century, this was the main artery along which they drove cattle, transported ghee, wool, and downy shawls. In winter, prasols plied the tract, buying up a calf for a pair of boots, a ram for a pound of bad tea, a one-year-old lamb for a chintz on a shirt. By May, the road was already filled with herds of cattle, which were driven to the fair in Orenburg. Emperor Alexander 1 made a trip to the Urals in September 1824, passing through Verkhneuralsk along the Ekaterininsky tract. In the 19th century, convicts were led along this road. The road connecting Orenburg, Ufa, Yekaterinburg led to the Verkhneuralsk prison. Verkhneuralsk was included, as a stage, in the route of the exiles from the center of Russia to Siberia. Here the escorts and horses changed, they gave short-term rest to the prisoners, who at different times were Decembrists, populists, democrats and revolutionaries, Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

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7. Catherine's road to Verkhneuralsk

Questions: how is it possible to travel hundreds of kilometers on such roads in a carriage? The shaking is incredible. On it, the wheels and the carriage will fall apart in one trip.

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11. Where did you get so many granite cobblestones if there are no rocky outcrops around? Was it thousands of miles away? Or maybe they were dismantling the ruins as the road was laid? True, rectangular stones are not found on the road. Or were these boulders on the surface after the flood?

Comments on the topic:

yuri_shap2015: In the Tver region, the Volga river to Tver is littered with stones, right there is a mountain river on the plain. And also for one square meter of soils, tens of kg of stones, granite, marble, diabase, etc. … Spinning on the surface … where are they from there? There are enough stones and huge boulders there, many lie just in an open field. In the spring, when the snow melts and the grass has not yet grown, they are clearly visible.

yuri_shap2015: The peculiarity of the Volga river littered with stones is simply unique for the lowland rivers.

This can only be seen in mountain rivers. And no one is confused by such an abundance of stone in an absolutely flat river. The main thing is that the deposits of stone (and there are mainly granites), from where they can be brought there, are Karelia and Len. region. The main explanation is the Glacier … which is 10 thousand years old..

Those. stones in the Northwest of Russia and in the Tver region in particular have been lying on the surface for more than 10,000 years … Well, yes ….. well, yes …. I believe, because this is how it is written in the book on geology….

12. In the Gorodok district of the Vitebsk region the most widespread vacancy is a stone collector. As the site haradok.info informs, 75 people are required for three organizations, and in general, in the region of 306 vacancies.

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Their presence is associated with glaciation, a creeping glacier tens of thousands of years ago. But this can still be imagined in or near mountain valleys. And for thousands of kilometers from the mountains - it is difficult for me personally.

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It is possible that the roads were paved with these stones and cobblestones. Given the official population density of that time, the construction was large-scale.

In video lectures G. Sidorov met information that there are similar roads in Eastern Siberia. Only shoots grow on them. Large trees cannot be fixed with roots, they fall. But there is no official information about the excavations or their discovery.

Another interesting topic of ancient stone roads is Roman roads … There are very interesting moments in it.

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16. The length of the roads is colossal!

The most important of the ancient public roads in Rome - Appian Way:

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I suggest you familiarize yourself with some interesting observations on this topic:

1. The first interesting point - the construction of the main Roman roads was according to a certain technology:

20. It resembles our modern road construction technology. But cars with a total weight of more than 20 tons pass on our roads. In winter, soils can swell from falling water in them. It is with this in mind that a reliable embankment is made, layers of pillows from the rock. It also happens to add geomembranes. And in European countries with a harsh winter climate, such as Finland, there is also a layer of reinforced concrete in the roadbed.

Was it possible that heavy carts of several tons drove along Roman roads? Otherwise, why such reliability to prevent the web from being pushed through is unclear.

I do not exclude that the ruts in the tuffs of Turkey, Malta and the Crimea are from the same topic. It was the heavy vehicles (at present it is difficult to judge them) that pushed through (and did not wear off the track) in the tuffs.

21. Crimea, Chufut Kale. There is a clear rut in the petrified mineral tuff. Perhaps this mud was flowing through the streets from a mud volcano. It was unrealistic to clean it, they simply pushed the track with carts. But the traces of the horses are not visible. This is a mystery.

2. The stone canvases of Roman roads also have a track. We look:

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24. Pompeii

This is my version. These cobblestones in the bed of Roman roads (but not in all) are geo-concrete, mineral tuff. Or maybe one of the recipes for Roman concrete. The track says that this is a depression in the canvas, and not its abrasion under the wheels.

25. Clickable. Click to view the seams in the blocks:

26. Look at the seams

27. The boulders in the roadbed of the Roman road resemble masses that were laid like dough. But they swelled up during petrification (some lime solutions have this property).

The ruts were formed due to the fact that some residents did not wait for the final petrification of the mass, but began to use the road for its intended purpose.

3. A gutter in the middle in some Roman roads.

28. England. Roman roads

29. For what purposes is the gutter made? The road is convex, the water flows along the edges and without it.

In information on this linkthe author makes a very bold assumption - a trough for the convenience of driving in a straight line with steam carriages (the first wheeled steam locomotives):

30. It was very problematic to steer like that. But it is also unrealistic to separate two such units on such a road.

31. The mass is large - there was clearly no hydraulics for the steering.

It is possible that Roman roads were adapted for these units of the 19th century. What if they were there before? There are also opinions that antiquity is not such antiquity as we are told. Extra millennium in chronology. But this is only a version, the question still remains a question.