The Sahara Desert: My Magical Night at the Edge of the Third Largest Desert in the World by Sheri B Doyle

Five minutes in the desert air is enough to start burning your nose and drying out your mouth to the point of being a little painful. Yet as I sat on our hotel rooftop it didn’t matter. I was sitting at the edge of the Sahara desert! This night, because of Ramadan, it was just myself and my husband as far as the eye could see.

The sand changed colors as the sun began to set, almost glowing orange against the blue sky. How in the world did I make it here, to the edge of the Sahara, in a small town in Morocco that was almost deserted? The moment was one of the most magical of my life.

Never in my life had I dreamed of being in the Sahara, taking SUV tours through the desert, looking at abandoned towns and mines, standing on the edge of rock and sand. It seemed like something only a small handful of people were able to do in their lives.

While we drank our bottles of water we sat giving thanks for the gift we had been given: sitting in this magical place. As the evening prayer ended and lights began to turn on in the mud houses around us, I knew the moment had passed. I would take the experience and the sound of absolute silence, something I have never heard before, with me forever.

I realized no longer were the places I read about in history books only for a small handful of people – they were also for me.

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