A Discovered Road. The recent discovery of a very old alphabetic script in the desert near Thebes is only one of the fascinating results of a survey of desert transportation routes in the Theban area that has been undertaken by Egyptologists John and Deborah Darnell since 1992. The principal focus of the Darnells' work has been on the road that runs from Luxor to the village of Farshut—in other words, a route through the desert that shortcuts the great eastward bend of the Nile, called the Qena Bend.

A Very Old Route. The Luxor-Farshut road is only the central artery in a complex network of desert tracks on the west side of the Nile in the Qena Bend area. Stone huts and piles called cairns are abundant in the area and give evidence of travelers and dwellers all the...