Sahel Corridor

The desert south of Selima lies along the old caravan country between Darfur and Egypt. Selima and Laqiya were among the watering places on the Forty Days' Road, a route across the eastern Sahara whose long stretches of sand and bare ground demanded careful preparation. Traders carried their loads between these isolated halts, relying on camels to cross the waterless distances separating the Nile country from Darfur.