Ancient Roman Appian Way becomes Italy’s 60th Unesco world heritage site

Highway that consolidated Roman empire joins modernist Romanian sculptures as latest sites added to list

Italy’s Via Appia Antica, or Appian Way, the earliest and most important road built by the ancient Romans, has been named a Unesco world heritage site, making Italy the country with the world’s highest number of locations on the coveted list.

Known as the Regina Viarum, or Queen of Roads, it connected Rome with the port of Brindisi in the south and marked a revolution in the construction of roads.