Walk into one and you will see small farms that still harvest date palms today.

BBC: Al Ain: The desert��s oasis

Caldwell then played a black-and-white video showing aerial footage of the house surrounded by date palms, crosshairs at the center of the screen zeroing in on the two-story concrete building.

NPR: Attack on Zarqawi Followed Weeks of Waiting

Here, an abundance of free-flowing freshwater springs support hundreds of thousands of olive and fruit trees and date palms, which also shade and cool the valley's mudbrick villages as they rest concealed in the greenery.

BBC: Siwa: An Egyptian oasis

Here, under the date palms, where the sun shines more than 300 days a year and the scent of coconut oil drifts from the beach, joggers, cyclists, dog walkers and rollerbladers pass by in a constant parade that ends only after nightfall.

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