Players are archaeologists digging for treasures in the desert, working together to collect as many valuable treasures as possible. A Desert Dig area is formed in the center of the table by creating a tableau of face-down cards in 4 rows of 6 overlapping cards (similar to a solitaire set-up). Only the top card of each row is available for play action. Players are then dealt a hand of action cards that allow them to move cards in the tableau, search the dig field, dig in one column of the field, or load cards onto the camel train (in a separate area). "No Trespassing" cards will block digging in a particular column and force a player to play a (limited quantity) "Deal" card in order to access any valuable treasure locked above that card. When the camel train contains 15 treasures, the game ends and the team of archaeologists determines the value of the treasures collected. As this is a cooperative game, the goal is to obtain the greatest possible treasure score as a team (a perfect game being a score of 115).