The alternative route by way of Ain Amûr is appreciably shorter, though, owing to the extra time involved in negotiating the steep passes to and from the plateau, there is little saving in time when travelling with a heavily-laden caravan. Compared with the lower road, however, this route is much more interesting and picturesque, and the presence of water at Ain Amûr, about half-way between the two oases, is a distinct advantage. The road from Kharga village lies over a broad plain, whose only features are occasional conical hills of dark ferruginous sandstone. It follows a W.N.W. direction, heading for the great indentation to the west of the Jebel Tarif range. After getting well into the recess, but when still some 15 kilometres from its head, the road turns abruptly to the south, and winds its way up an escarpment littered with huge blocks of tufaceous limestone. Perched near the summit of the cliffs stands the solitary palm which marks the site of the water-hole, in the immediate neighbourhood of which grows a fair amount of prickly scrub. The remains of mud-brick buildings and a stone temple show that this place was formerly inhabited, and of some importance. The ascent to the plateau from Ain Amûr needs care with laden camels. The road proceeds up a narrow defile, the actual track being very rough, and so confined that in places the packs are liable to be dragged off by the rocks on either side. Once on the plateau the going becomes first rate, the freedom of the surface from blown sand being very noticeable. This is due to the isolation of this portion of the plateau-massif, which is cut off from the main mass to the north by the deep recess, and is bounded by a low-lying plain to the south. After a distance of 33 kilometres has been traversed the road descends into a narrow valley opening on to the low country to the south, and proceeds in a westerly direction to Tenîda. The distance from Kharga to Tenîda by this route is 128 kilometres. It is possible on leaving Ain Amûr to cross to the top of the indentation, and thence to proceed across the plateau almost due west, striking the road from Assiut, known as the Derb el Tawîl, at the top of the pass 25 kilometres from the village of Belat. There is, however, no track, and the surface is covered with parallel north and south ridges of rock, the crossing of which is extremely wearisome. Both near the head of the Ain Amûr recess and in the extreme north-west corner of the oasis very old tracks trending in westerly and northwesterly directions are observable, and although unused at the present day, these may mark the positions of formerly frequented routes leading to the oasis of Farafra. At the present time that oasis is not in direct communication with Kharga, the routes used being from Manfalut in the Nile Valley, from Qasr Dakhl in the oasis of Dakhla, and from Ain el Hais in Baharia.