The main route between the Nile and Red Sea for thousands of years, Wadi Hammamat runs from Qift, just north of Luxor, to Al Quseir. Inscriptions, remains of old wells and other evidence of the area’s long history can be seen along the way. Part of the route is marked on what might be the world's earliest map, drawn up for Ramses IV's quarrymen in 1160 BC, found in Luxor in the 1820s and now in Turin's Museo Egizio.
A collection of rock inscriptions lies along the high, smooth walls of Wadi Hammamat, about halfway along the road between Al Quseir and Qift. This remarkable graffiti dates from Pharaonic times down to Egypt’s 20th-century King Farouk. In Graeco-Roman times, watchtowers were built along the trail at short enough intervals for signals to be visible, and many of them are still intact on the barren hilltops on either side of the road.
