An oasis was and still is a welcome sight to desert travelers. It means shade from the unrelenting desert sun, and more importantly, water.
Humans can go almost a month without food but die from lack of water in less than a week.
The desert travelers were not certain that the oasis was real until they could tough the rough bark of the date palm trees, feel the shade of their branches, and cup up water with their hands onto their dust covered faces, lips, and tongues. One of the greatest fears when traveling in the desert would be that the oasis in the distance would turn out to be a mirage. The tired, longing eyes, straining to see in the windblown sands and refracted desert light, longed to see an oasis. When that oasis turned out to be only a mirage, the disappointment could be devasting. Not many of us travel through or live in physical deserts.