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Romans are always the first

This post is also available in: Polish (polski)

Atlas Mountains
Atlas Mountains

When, during the conquest of Algeria in 1850, the French general Saint-Arnaud was crossing with his army the Atlas Mountains, through the Kang Pass, he thought he was the first European to take this path.

However, he was disappointed, when he saw a Latin inscription engraved on the rock proclaiming that the III legion of Augustus in 145 CE built a road here.

Sources
  • Bonnie Effros, Incidental Archaeologists: French Officers and the Rediscovery of Roman North Africa
  • Anne Glyn-Jones, Holding Up a Mirror: How Civilizations Decline