Arteries are blood carrying vessels which have thick, elastic, muscular walls, have no valves and in which blood flows under high pressure. The make up of arteries is unique to their function of transporting blood under high pressure.
All arteries carry oxygenated blood from the heart to all other parts of the body, with the exception of the pulmonary artery which carries de-oxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs. It is the only artery that transports blood which has not been oxygenated.