Darb El Arba'īn

The Darb El Arba'īn route was used to move trade goods, livestock (camels, donkeys, cattle, horses) and slaves via a chain of oases from the interior of Africa to portage on the Nile River and thence to the rest of the world.

[2][3][4] The journey from what is now North Darfur, Sudan to what is now Asyut Governorate, Egypt is approximately 1,800 km (1,100 mi) and usually took closer to 60 days due to the need to rest and water the herd.

[6][2] Modern archeologists studying the route have found watering stations, cairns (called alamat in Arabic and used as wayfinding markers), sherds, petroglyphs dating to the New Kingdom and the Roman era, and the bleached bones of camels and donkeys.

[7][6] The Sudanese slave trade was abolished and blockaded in the last decade of the 19th century by the Anglo-Egyptian government "thus bringing to a close a long chapter of suffering in the history of the peoples of East Bilad al-Sudan.

"[7] The trade goods exchanged along the route via caravan included gold, copper, quartz, precious and semiprecious gemstones such as emeralds, faience, ebony, alabaster, natron, salt, alum, tamarinds, wheat, ivory (both elephant and hippopotamus), rhinoceros horn, ostrich eggs, ostrich feathers, civet, tar, aromatic oil, resin, incense, gum Arabic, Aleppo soap, senna leaves, lentils, rare vegetables, olive oil, vinegar, spices such as cloves, wine, "luxury" items, weapons, textiles, animal pelts, "exotic" live animals, and plants.

[9] The southern terminus of Darb El Arba'īn was Kobbei or Kabayh (Arabic: كتم) in Darfur, which was "once the chief city of western Sudan."

A 1933 map of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan noted that wildlife-rich Wadi Howar was "much used by natives as a road from North West Darfur to Bir Natrun and Dongola.

Finally, after navigating the Kharga Pass, the caravans would reach the Forty Days Road's northern terminus at the Nile city of Asyut, Egypt.