There is extensive thorny date palm, acacia, buffalo thorn, and jujube growth in the oasis surrounding the modern town of Kharga.

[7] Kharga Oasis experiences extreme summers for most of the year with no precipitation and warm winters with cool nights.

The ancient route connected the Al-Fashir area of Sudan to Asyut in Egypt, navigating through a chain of oases including Kharga, Selima Oasis and Bir Natrun.

[10] At least 700 years old,[10] it was likely used from as early as the Old Kingdom of Egypt for the transport and trade of gold, ivory, spices, wheat, animals and plants.

The maximum extent of Darb El Arba'īn was northward from Kobbei in Darfur (located about 25 miles north of al-Fashir) passing through the desert, through Bir Natrum and Wadi Howar, and ending at the Nile River access point of Asyut in Egypt.

In the case of Kharga, this is made particularly evident by the presence of a chain of fortresses that the Romans built to protect the Darb El Arba'īn route.

[15] After the prominent Christian theologian Nestorius was condemned as a heretic in the 431 Council of Ephesus, he was removed from his position as Patriarch of Constantinople and exiled to a monastery then located in the Great Oasis of Hibis (El Kharga).

[17] In his diary, “Al-Hajj Al-Bari” mentioned the most important families descending of Christians and Romans in the Kharga Oasis.

A standard gauge railway line Kharga → Qena (Nile Valley) → Port Safaga (Red Sea) has been in service since 1996, but has been decommissioned soon after.

The first list of sites is due to Ahmad Fakhri but serious archaeological work began in 1976 with Serge Sauneron, director of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale.