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It is already late in the afternoon when a sand and

crushed taxi picks you up in the Moroccan town of Mizzuga.

Well, it's larger than many of the towns in this area. Mizzuga is built around a small

stretch of two lane highway. That's the main way in and out.

Non-descript dirt lanes crisscross the thoroughfare. Each side is lined with alternating plots

of sandstone colored homes and empty square brush lots.

Every inch of town backs up against a broad

expense of the Sahara Desert. In the high tourist season, Mizzuga transforms into a backpacker haven

where visitors gather to book safaris, sandrunikes, and camel tracks.

In the off season, it reverts to the locals who seem content to let the tourists all return home for a while.

It's the camel track that brought you here. But unlike your fellow explorers, you have been

advised to taxi northward to a small hamlet at the edge of a place called Urg Chebby.

This vast expanse of sand dunes near the Algerian border is a place full of stunning sights and blissful

peace. Now that you're here, you can't wait to begin.

The glaring rays of the sun overhead baked the villages parched dirt lanes.

Over time, this is produced a crackled texture all across them, like the surface of an artist's canvas.

The few buildings standing here, maybe several dozen in total, range from handicraft shops,

...