Before the Kofun Period
The Oldest Road in Japan,
Hiking Course

There are beautiful mountains ranging east of the Nara Basin. At the bottom of them lies an ancient road from Heijo (Nara city) through Isonokamifuru to Miwa and Kanaya. This road is the oldest road on record in Japan, called "Yamanobe no Michi."
The road is dotted with many shrines, temples and tomb mounds connected with historic or legendary events which appear in Kojiki (a collection of legendary stories of old Japan), Nihon Shoki (the oldest official history of Japan) and Manyoshu (the earliest extant collection of Japanese poetry). Its vicinity is full of a mythical atmosphere so that visitors may feel as if they were time travelers to the distant past.

Source: The Tenri municipal government