The next pass of importance to the south lies east of the village of Bulaq, whence it takes its name. From the summit a road runs nearly due east, meeting a second, starting from Beris and gaining the plateau by the Jaja pass, after one and a half days’ march. From the cross-roads, ‘El Mafâriq,’ routes run direct to Farshut and Rizagat. From Beris to Farshut, by the Jaja pass, the distance is approximately 224 kilometres; from Kharga, by the Bulaq pass, the roads to Farshut and Rizagat measure about 203 and 198 kilometres respectively. Another road from Beris leaves the depression by a pass to the east of the village of Dush; this bifurcates about two days’ march from the latter, the left-hand track leading to Esna, the right to Edfu. Other roads lead from the south end of the oasis, via Nakhail, to Kurkur and Dungun, while the Derb el Arbaîn runs southwards to Selîma and thence on to the Sudan.
The road between the oasis and Assiut is best known as being the last and worst portion of the Derb el Arbaîn, or forty days’ road, which, starting from Darfur, was originally one of the main lines of communication between Egypt and the Sudan. It was along this desert route that great numbers of slaves and large quantities of merchandise, such as ivory, gum, and other products of the Sudan, were imported into Egypt from the south. After passing the last spring in the oasis, caravans had still a little over 200 kilometres to cover before reaching the Nile Valley, with a steep ascent to the plateau at the outset, and thence for a considerable distance over the very worst surface imaginable—loose sand full of sharp angular blocks and fragments of flint and cherty limestone. Little wonder that, overladen and fatigued by the long distance already covered, the camels died in great numbers on this last stretch of road. Along most desert routes the dried bones of camels are of fairly frequent occurrence, but on the Derb el Arbaîn, between Kharga and Assiut, the skeletons of these poor beasts are met with in groups of tens and twenties, and must number hundreds and thousands. In many instances the skeleton still lies undisturbed, in the position assumed by the luckless animal in its death agony, the long neck curved back by muscular contraction so that the skull lies in contact with the spine. When one sees these remains, half buried in the sand, the bones bleached snow-white by a pitiless sun, with still adhering fragments of skin and muscle dried hard as adamant, one cannot but feel pity for those patient ‘ships of the desert,’ wrecked almost within sight of port.
Cailliaud, in 1817, observed the arrival at Assiut of a large caravan from Darfur, consisting of 16,000 individuals. It included 6,000 slaves—men, women, and children. He remarks: “They had been two months travelling in the deserts, in the most intense heat of the year; meagre, exhausted, and the aspect of death on their countenances, the spectacle strongly excited compassion.”
The actual width of the plateau varies from 120 kilometres between Abu Sighawâl and the scarp above Waled Hallaf, to 200 kilometres between Beris and Esna. The maximum elevation above sea-level is about 550 metres on the latitude of Esna, and on the whole the plateau has a fairly general slope to the north. As already mentioned, several distinct types of country, depending on the nature of the rocks constituting the surface strata, are met with. Smooth, hard, level plains, formed of a superficial layer of weathered limestone covered by a brown veneer of insoluble flint and cherty fragments, alternate with bare rugged rock desert of hummocky limestone. The sombre level or gently undulating flint-covered plains, frequently spoken of as ‘serir’ by the Arabs, have ideal surfaces for travelling; the light-coloured hummocky country, often called ‘kharafish,’ is in its most developed form made up of innumerable elongated hillocks, every portion of the exposed rock-surfaces being deeply scored; the furrows are separated by upstanding edges, often so sharp and knife-like as to be capable of injuring the feet of man and beast. The hillocks are separated by deep troughs half buried in drift-sand, all lying parallel, in the direction of the prevailing winds, so that progress in a latitudinal direction through this type of desert is a slow and tedious undertaking. Both types of country are equally desolate and barren, scrub of any description being of the rarest occurrence, except after local thunderstorms. Another type of country, to which we have already briefly alluded, is the curious desert-surface called El Botîkh (the water-melons), which results from the weathering of certain bands of the Lower Eocene formation containing numbers of large globular concretions; these, it may be mentioned, often lie so thickly strewn on the surface as to actually obstruct the passing caravan.
Kharga is connected with the oasis of Dakhla to the west by two roads, the lower and more southerly, known as the Derb el Ghubbâri, being the one most frequently used. This road, by taking a wide sweep to the south, avoids the intervening plateau altogether, so that the fatiguing ascent and descent are avoided. After leaving Kharga village the route leads past a group of wells, known as Ain Khenâfish, distant some 6 kilometres; thence it lies over wide-stretching plains of sandstone, leading up to the more broken country formed by the foot-hills of the towering plateau, which is always plainly visible on the north side of the road. The distance to Tenîda, the most easterly of the Dakhla villages, is 143 kilometres by the Derb el Ghubbâri.
The alternative route by way of Ain Amûr is appreciably shorter, though, owing to the extra time involved in negotiating the steep passes to and from the plateau, there is little saving in time when travelling with a heavily-laden caravan. Compared with the lower road, however, this route is much more interesting and picturesque, and the presence of water at Ain Amûr, about half-way between the two oases, is a distinct advantage. The road from Kharga village lies over a broad plain, whose only features are occasional conical hills of dark ferruginous sandstone. It follows a W.N.W. direction, heading for the great indentation to the west of the Jebel Tarif range. After getting well into the recess, but when still some 15 kilometres from its head, the road turns abruptly to the south, and winds its way up an escarpment littered with huge blocks of tufaceous limestone. Perched near the summit of the cliffs stands the solitary palm which marks the site of the water-hole, in the immediate neighbourhood of which grows a fair amount of prickly scrub. The remains of mud-brick buildings and a stone temple show that this place was formerly inhabited, and of some importance.
The ascent to the plateau from Ain Amûr needs care with laden camels. The road proceeds up a narrow defile, the actual track being very rough, and so confined that in places the packs are liable to be dragged off by the rocks on either side. Once on the plateau the going becomes first rate, the freedom of the surface from blown sand being very noticeable. This is due to the isolation of this portion of the plateau-massif, which is cut off from the main mass to the north by the deep recess, and is bounded by a low-lying plain to the south. After a distance of 33 kilometres has been traversed the road descends into a narrow valley opening on to the low country to the south, and proceeds in a westerly direction to Tenîda. The distance from Kharga to Tenîda by this route is 128 kilometres.
It is possible on leaving Ain Amûr to cross to the top of the indentation, and thence to proceed across the plateau almost due west, striking the road from Assiut, known as the Derb el Tawîl, at the top of the pass 25 kilometres from the village of Belat. There is, however, no track, and the surface is covered with parallel north and south ridges of rock, the crossing of which is extremely wearisome. Both near the head of the Ain Amûr recess and in the extreme north-west corner of the oasis very old tracks trending in westerly and northwesterly directions are observable, and although unused at the present day, these may mark the positions of formerly frequented routes leading to the oasis of Farafra. At the present time that oasis is not in direct communication with Kharga, the routes used being from Manfalut in the Nile Valley, from Qasr Dakhl in the oasis of Dakhla, and from Ain el Hais in Baharia.
Before leaving the subject of roads we must briefly refer to the route taken by the railway. The line, which has a gauge of 75 centimetres, was built by the Corporation of Western Egypt, Limited, to develop their concessions in the oasis. It commences at Mouaslet el Kharga, a new station on the Egyptian State Railway near Farshut, and crosses to the border of the desert, a few kilometres distant, by way of one of the embankments separating two of the great irrigation basins of Upper Egypt. At the edge of the desert is the station of El Qara, the point of departure for the oasis. After skirting the margin of the Nile Valley cultivation for a short distance it heads straight for the Wadi Samhûd, by means of which the plateau is gained without encountering any very heavy gradients. From the top of the Wadi Samhûd the line follows the Abu Sighawâl road for about 40 kilometres, after which it diverges a few degrees and proceeds to El Tundaba, the shaft already described, 92 kilometres from Mouaslet el Kharga. From El Tundaba the railway follows more or less closely the cross-track, sometimes called the Derb el Refûf, which joins the Sohag road at El Shugera, and, entering the depression by the Refûf pass, follows down the gully, and thence across the plain to the station of Meheriq. From Meheriq it proceeds nearly due south to the Corporation’s headquarters, and thence on to its present terminus a few kilometres from Kharga village.
