Taklamakan Desert
Taklamakan Desert
TripAtlas.com
The 'Taklamakan Desert' (also Taklimakan) is a desert of Central Asia, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It is known as one of the largest sandy deserts in the world.[1]
It covers an area of 270,000 km² of the Tarim Basin, 1,000 km long and 400 km wide. It is crossed at its northern and at its southern edge by two branches of the Silk Road as travellers sought to avoid the arid wasteland.[2]
The Taklamakan Desert is one the world's major deserts, ranking 15th in size in a ranking of the world's largest non-polar deserts.[3]
Oases
There is no water on the desert and it was hazardous to cross.[4] Merchant caravans on the Silk Road would stop for relief at the thriving oasis towns.[5] The key oasis towns, watered by rainfall from the mountains, were Kashgar, Marin, Niya, Yarkand, and Khotan (Hetian) to the south, Kuqa and Turfan in the north, and Loulan and Dunhuang in the east. Now some, such as Marin, are ruined cities in a sparsely inhabited dusty spot with poor roads and minimal transportation in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China.[6]
The White Jade River flows into the Taklamakan, as do the Yarkant He originating in the Kunlun Mountains and the river from the Tien Shan range.
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1. Takla Makan Desert
2. The Atlas of World Geology, , Paul G., Bahn, Checkmark Books, 2000, ISBN 0-8160-4051-6
3. The World's Largest Desert
4. The Silk Roads and Eurasian Geography
5. Spies Along the Silk Road
6. The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith
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