The Grand Trunk Road is one of South Asia's oldest and longest major roads. For more than 2 millennium, it has linked the eastern and western regions of the Indian subcontinent, running from Chittagong, Bangladesh through to Howrah, West Bengal in India, across north India into Peshawar (in present day Pakistan), up to Kabul, Afghanistan. Its former names include UttaraPatha ("The Road to North"), Shah Rah-e-Azam ("Great Road") or Sadak-e-Azam or Badshahi Sadak.
The route spanning the GT road existed during the Mauryan Empire, extending from the mouth of the Ganges to the north-western frontier of the Empire. The modern road was rebuilt by Sher Shah Suri, who renovated and extended the ancient route in the 16th century.
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Famous quotes containing the words grand, trunk and/or road:
“There is the grand truth about Nathaniel Hawthorne. He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men who say yes, lie; and all men who say no,—why, they are in the happy condition of judicious, unincumbered travellers in Europe; they cross the frontiers into Eternity with nothing but a carpet-bag,—that is to say, the Ego. Whereas those yes-gentry, they travel with heaps of baggage, and, damn them! they will never get through the Custom House.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.”
—Alfred Noyes (1880–1958)