navigation...

I'm trying to solve a problem... I have a site divided in areas. Each area has it's own id, and may have it's own sub-areas. Each sub-area has it's own sub-areas, etc... My will is to return the areas in some cascade order... I can do it recursively, but it generates too many queries. I was wondering how i could do this with only one query to the database. Here's the structure i have so far: AREAS (area_id INT; parent_id INT; root_id(??) INT; description VARCHAR(60)); Can anyone help?? Thanks in advance... PS: I think this would very similar to a threaded forum...