It is the largest desert in the world, draped across the width of a continent and dividing it into two.

It is a land of dramatic landscapes of shifting dunes, sudden sandstorms, intense sun and nighttime skies so clear than one tries to reach and touch the stars with one's own hands.

Its very name - the word "Sahara" in Arabic means desert - conjures up images of veiled Arab horsemen, caravans of camels hundreds-long laden with exotic wares, and nomadic warriors sheltered by their robes from harsh desert storms.

It takes time to reach the Sahara (no, there are no airports). Enough time so that all those other tourists - you know, the ones buying hokey souvenirs in hotel gift shops - don't follow you…. The further into the desert you venture, the more tourists you leave behind and the more the Sahara belongs to you.

The roads you travel on are ancient caravan routes… older than the "Silk Route" to China and older than those ancient Roman routes across Europe.

Exploring into the desert, you travel along the river valleys - lush belts of green extending into the harsh dryness of the desert. You venture, as did the legendary tradesmen of centuries before, from one oasis to the next - islands of comfort in the midst of nothingness.

Semi-nomadic Berber tribes have lived along these river valleys for countless generations.

Others - village-dwelling tribes - constructed fortified mud villages and served the trading caravans. Their lives revolve around the procurement of water and the growing of a few crops (most often dates and corn) on tiny bits of irrigated land.

Their picturesque dwellings - kasbahs or ksours - are decorated with bas-relief carving and are placed along the perimeter of the river valleys or oases.

The Berbers who inhabit the fortified villages of these valleys and gorges still live in many ways as their ancestors did. The women, clothed in brilliant colors, paint their hands and feet in delicate patterns of henna. Older women display tattoos on their foreheads and chins to identify the tribe to which they belong. Even as they work in the fields, many wear jewelry handed down from mother to daughter, with links signifying each generation - a sort of family tree.

It was the great river valleys and oases which defined the legendary trans-Saharan trading routes. Traders would venture into the great unknown of sub-Saharan Africa - months away by camel caravan - in the hopes of returning with treasures of salt, slaves or - best of all - gold from the legendary mines of sub-Saharan Africa whose exact locations are still unknown.

Sooner or later, even the belts of green along the trading routes die out into the harsh, arid sands of the Sahara. Human civilization ceases and you are alone - like the traders of centuries past - with the sands and the winds and the sky and the stars.

Although hardly a "tourist destination" (accommodations are not up to western standards), the Sahara holds endless rewards for those travelers determined to experience its ravishing power.

Perhaps it is the sunrise over the wind-sculpted dunes which will be your most lasting memory of your trip to Morocco.

Or perhaps it will be the burning brilliance of the stars in the vast Saharan sky.

Or perhaps the last earthen settlement - camouflaged into the Saharan sands - as the road fades into sand-swept nothingness.

Or perhaps your camel trek (not for everyone!) to crumbling castles in the sand - or your 4x4 adventure to picturesque kasbahs and ksour, a number of which are still inhabited.

Or, for those of you who are truly adventurous, your night camping in the Sahara in traditional Berber tents may be your most lasting memory.