If the traveller, after leaving the Refûf pass, keeps to the south of El Shugera, he will find a branch road leading to El Tundaba, a deep shaft in the centre of the plateau, at kilometre No. 92 on the railway; a little farther east this track strikes the main road from the Abu Sighawâl pass. The shaft is sunk through a thick deposit of silt, which has filled a local depression in the plateau to some depth. The silt must be regarded as rain-wash from the surrounding country, possibly deposited in the time of prehistoric man. Flint implements are to be found scattered about, and from the presence of pottery and graves it would seem that the place had been inhabited in comparatively modern times. The pit was evidently sunk for water, although at the present time it is quite dry; given, however, a heavy thunderstorm within the catchment-basin, drainage-water would in all probability find its way to the bottom of the deposit, where it would be held up by the limestone, and might form a supply lasting possibly for many years. The road leaving the depression by the Abu Sighawâl pass, and leading to villages in the neighbourhood of Girga and Farshut, is reckoned the best and shortest route between Kharga and the Nile Valley, and, by making a very short détour, caravans have the advantage of being able to water at the old Roman fort at the base of Jebel Ghennîma, 27 kilometres after leaving the village. The ascent of the pass was formerly very rough going, but a good road with an easy gradient has recently been cut for the transport of heavy boring machinery into the oasis. From the top of the Abu Sighawâl pass a well-marked track crosses to El Refûf and connects with the Sohag road, and care has to be taken by travellers for Waled Hallaf, El Elwania and Karnak not to make the initial mistake of getting on to this track.