Asphalt pavement traces its history back to prehistoric times. Its earliest confirmed usage as a road material is dated at 625 BC, when the Babylonians used it to pave the route leading from King Naboppolassar's opulent palace to city's northern wall. It was also used by the ancient Greeks and Romans for various construction and engineering applications, and was revived in Europe in the 18th century, when a rapidly modernizing world was in need of infrastructure improvements.