Desert roads are to a certain extent defined by the imagined existence of previous travellers, those who have gone before and ‘made’ the road. A desert road is by definition well remembered.
-J.Gates, The Well-Remembered Path: Roadways and Cultural Memory in Roman Egypt, 2012
I had read the accounts of Old Kingdom caravan leader Harkouf and 18th C English explorer W.G. Browne riding south on the Darb, but nothing drove home the reality of riding north- not Harkouf’s tomb inscription, “I came bringing gifts from the Land of Yam in great quantity, the likes of which had never before been seen”, not even Browne’s “much indifference to personal accomodations and enjoyments”- like the question KhairAllah asked me, “By God, Why did you choose this?”