In the process of strengthening the religious significance and administrative status of Jerusalem, the Umayyad caliphs set out to repair the roads leading to the city, chiefly for the benefit of pilgrims. The network of roads linking Jerusalem with other parts of the country remained basically the same as it had been during the Byzantine period. The Umayyad improvements focused on the roads leading toward the center of the Umayyad administration center – Damascus.

Most of the road repairs were conducted under the rule of 'Abd al-Malik, the roads connecting Damascus and Mecca being the most important. Six roads leading to Jerusalem were improved: the northern road from Nablus, the eastern road from Damascus through Jericho, the southern road from the northen Negev through Hebron, and three roads from the west – from Jaffa through Bet Horon, from Lod-Ramla and from Gaza-Ashqelon-Bet Guvrin.