During a recent trip, travel columnist Scott McMurren enjoyed the country’s history and caught a spectacular Sahara sunrise.

Gearing up: For a project to photograph the world’s extreme deserts, I wanted to visit the giant sand dunes in China’s Inner Mongolia. The only way into the Gobi is on foot or by camel.

It took a full day driving over giant sand dunes, from which we had to dig our truck out several times, until eventually we reached the place where Ben was certain the rain had fallen just a few ...