Down the valley, the green oasis fades into wind-swept sand dunes, dunes like those seen in Arabia, but smaller and bounded by the mountains. The shrubs and tufts of grass obey no sharp boundary with the dunes, but rather meander into and out of the neighboring ecosystem. Sand and camels at 12,000 feet, ranges away from the sea, but once upon a time...  


high altitude
valley -- strange worlds squeezed
between two mountains