Back to what Ruke said - you *can* take multiple pictures of an area and then stitch them together using programs like Photoshop and GIMP.
Basically, you need to shoot from a constant position, with a constant exposure and speed, and with constant lighting. Systematically advance your area of shooting with each shot so that you progressively cover a wide swath of the area of interest. Make sure that each new shot includes about 25% of the last shot, so that each of the photos overlaps somewhat with its predecessor.
Then go to Photoshop or GIMP and open all of the pictures at the same time. Create one new background image (initially blank) that is as large as the sum of all of the individual pictures. Then bring each of the individual pictures into the new background image as layers.
You start by arranging the layers into the order of the overall intended image. Then you carefully position them relative to each other by lining up that 25% overlap I mentioned above. You can do this visually by lowering the opacity of the layer you are positioning at the moment so that you can see the overlapping area of the "preceeding" photo in the layer below. Carry on like this until you have positioned all of the images into the full panorama you are looking for. Return all the opacity settings to 100% and flatten the layers back down to a single layer. Done!
Sounds easy? Not really. There are lots of issues that crop up, like the exposure not being quite the same in each of the shots, destroying the continuity from one part of the pano to another. Or your camera may change some automated settings along the way such that you get different color reproduction or some other artifact, again messing up the continuity. Each of these has to be dealt with in turn until the finished image looks decent.
As dtownley1 said, it is a heck of a Photoshop job usually - takes quite a while.
BTW, Photoshop has an automated process that will try to do the sbobr stitching for you automatically. This sometimes works pretty well, and you are done.
A better solution? Get a good wide angle lens, take ONE shot, and be done!!