Botswana’s 80,000-square-kilometer Makgadikgadi Pans is a wilderness like no other place on Earth. Located in the Kalahari Desert, on the site of a giant lake that dried up a million years ago, the landscape is barren and forbidding. (If you plan to visit, you’ll need a 4WD vehicle and working GPS.)

This massive area is supposedly so quiet you can hear the blood rushing through your veins. Heat mirages destroy your sense of space and direction, especially when shimmering in the scorching temperatures of a late summer day. However, if the winter sees a heavy rain, bright green grass sprouts and wildlife like zebra, wildebeest and flamingos flourish.

If this has piqued your interest, enjoy this photo tour through the vast, wondrous wasteland known as the Makgadikgadi Pans.