The Casting Up of Highways In Ancient Mesoamerica as Foretold in the Book of Mormon

"cast up" highway from Dziblchaltun (Yucatan),
1.6 miles long.

It has been well documented for years that the Mayans and Aztecs and other Mesoamerican groups had highways and roads which conforms perfectly with what the Book of Mormon states.  In 3 Nephi 8:13 it speaks of both highways and level roads.  This is interesting because the wording makes them two distinctly different types of roads.  This is confirmed in 3 Nephi 6:8 which states,

"And there were many highways cast up, and many roads made, which led from city to city and from land to land, and from place to place."

John Sorensen speaks of these two scriptures and explains that, "The phrasing indicates at least two levels of technological sophistication - highways were "cast up" while roads were "made".  The most striking roads in the lowland Maya area (less is known for other regions) were "cast up". The principal "sacbe", or highway, at Dziblchaltun (pronounced as zeeb-ill-chal-tune) was 66 ft. (20 m) wide and up to 7ft (2m) high, with edges made of great limestone blocks.  Between the limestone edges, coarse fill was leveled with fine gravel and then paved with plaster.  This highway ran for some 1.6 miles.  Seven such highways led from the site to secondary centers.   Such massive construction qualifies as "cast up".  The date is approximately the same as when the Nephite record mentions highways.  In addition, of course several sorts of roads were "made" as enumerated by Sahgun (Benardo Sahgun)."