Darb el-Arbain
The Forty Days Road, a caravan route through the Sahara between Darfur and Asyut in Egypt.
Overview
The name refers to the roughly forty days the journey took through some of the driest desert on earth, from El Fasher in Darfur via the oases of Selima and Kharga to Asyut on the Nile. Camel caravans carried ivory, ostrich feathers, gum arabic, tamarind and enslaved people north, and returned with textiles, metalware and firearms. Its peak use came between the 17th and 19th centuries, when caravans of thousands of camels were reported. The trade dwindled after the end of the slave trade and the arrival of railways and steamers, though camels are still driven north from Sudan to the markets of Egypt.
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