Intef I got rapidly embroiled in a war with his northern neighbors. A graffito discovered by the Theban Desert Road Survey in the Gebel Tjauti northwest of Thebes reports the presence there of "the assault troops of the son of Ra, Intef". It has been posited that this inscription refers to Intef I whose soldiers were fighting the Coptite nomarch Tjauti. In support of this hypothesis is a nearby worn out stele erected by Tjauti reporting the construction of a road to allow his people to cross the desert "which the ruler of another nome had sealed off he came in order to fight with my nome...". Although not named explicitly, Darell Baker and other Egyptologists contend that this ruler must either be Intef I or his successor Intef II. In any case, the subsequent defeat of Tjauti ultimately put Koptos, Dendera and the three nomes of Hierakonpolis under Theban control, expanding the Theban kingdom 250 km northward with a border near Abydos.