Takla makan

The Taklamakan Desert is a great Taklamakan Desert: Location and Name The origin and meaning of the name “Taklamakan” have remained controversial over the years. Experts agree that the word “makan” is of Persian origin and translates as “place.” However, the meaning of “Takla” is unclear. The most common translations given for this word include “abandon,” “leave behind,” or “relinquish.” Based on this translation, the name of the desert would translate loosely as “abandoned place.” Some experts have also suggested the name “the place of ruins” for this desert. More commonly, the desert is referred to by its nickname, such as “Sea of Death” or “Place of No Return.” These nicknames refer to legends that describe the Taklamakan as “a place one can get into but will never get out of” due to the brutal and dangerous nature of the desert’s climate. Located in the southwestern Xinjiang province in Northwest China, the Taklamakan desert is flanked by mountain ranges on all sides. The southern boundary of this desert is the Kunlun Mountain, while it has the Tian Shan Mountain Range to its north and the Pamir Mountains to the west. The Taklamakan also shares a boundary with the Gobi Desert on its eastern flank. Taklamakan Desert: Size The Taklamakan is considered the second-largest shifting sand desert in the world. ©iStock.com/rweisswald With a land area of about 130,000 square miles (337,000 square kilometers), the Taklamakan Desert is the largest in China. It is just slightly sma...

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Tibetan art objets d’art preserved in museums and private collections. Up to the 9th century ce, Tibet was open to cultural influence from The introduction of Buddhism from the 8th century onward led to the arrival in Tibet of Buddhist craftsmen from Central Asia and later from Nepal and northwest India, all of which were then Buddhist lands. Some cast images from this first Buddhist period may survive in Lhasa. After 842, central Tibet dissolved into political

TAKLAMAKAN (Uighur toponym probably derived from the Arabic tark, ‘out, relinquish,’ and makan, ‘place’), the largest desert in China, and one of the largest deserts in the world. It is located in the depression of the Tarim basin, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Its core is a desert area of shifting sand dunes (erg), whereas a gravel desert with an elliptical string of oases forms its periphery. Since high Antiquity this desert basin is strategically situated one the famous Silk Road, which is the main caravan track joining up China and West Eurasia, with India via the Karakum pass, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Persia, across the Pamir and the Hindu Kush. It has recently acquired great strategic importance because China is now exploiting its oil and gas fields. The Taklamakan stretches over 337,000 square kilometers in the centre of the Tarim basin. The vast depression runs nearly 1,200 km from west to east, and is 400 km wide from north to south. It forms an elliptical, semi-open basin in the Lop Nur marsh, at an altitude between 1,450 m in the west to 771 m in the east. The desert is open to the east through the Hexi Corridor, while on the other three sides its borders are high relief mountain ranges: the Kunlun to the south, the Karakorum and Pamir to the west, and Tien Shan to the north ( The Taklamakan is an interior desert, enclosed by high ranges and therefore isolated from the influences of the west wind of the general circulation and of the southerly m...

Plant and animal life Vegetation is extremely The There are a large number of People and economy There is no fixed population in the Takla Makan. Hunters make periodic visits, but the area territory is not used by stock breeders because of the virtual absence of vegetation. Since 1950 the Chinese government has encouraged the emigration of In the 1950s Tensions between Study and

While China is home to many famous and beautiful landscapes, there are some sites that may not be as famous, but are nevertheless endlessly fascinating. The Taklamakan Desert is China’s largest, and the world’s second-largest non-polar, sand-shifting desert (the first is the Sahara Desert) is located in the middle of the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. Historically, the desert has been of immense importance as a prominent landmark on the ancient Silk Road. In the local Uyghur vernacular, the name means, ‘The Point of No Return’ (“You go in but you won’t come out”). The area, which is about the same size as the country of Germany, is known for its inhospitable climate, with shifting dunes which can reach up to 300 metres in height. Nicknamed ‘The Sea of Death’, it borders the equally hostile Gobi Desert, several mountain ranges (Kunlun, Pamir and Tian Shan), and countries like Pakistan, India and those of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan). A Map of the Taklamakan Desert During the time of the Silk Road trade, no one dared walked through the desert, both because of its inhospitable conditions, and the various folktales about the desert spirits who inhabit it, luring lost travelers to their deaths. Therefore, the Silk Road was split along the oases towns north and south of the desert, the largest being Khotan and Kashgar. Traders carrying everything from food, gems to slaves, would often stop to rest and restock in these towns. A Street...

Lack of Rainfall Wang Yue and Dong Guangrun of the Desert Research Institute in Lanzhou, China, say that in the Taklamakan Desert the average annual rainfall is less than 40 mm (1.57 inches). It is about 10 mm—that's just over a third of an inch—in the center and 100 mm at the bases of the mountains, according to Terrestrial Ecoregions—Taklimakan desert. " In the northeastern edge of the desert, archaeologists from 2002 until 2005 excavated an extraordinary cemetery called Xiaohe, which has been radiocarbon-dated to as early as 2000 B.C.E.... A vast oval sand hill covering 25 hectares, the site is a forest of 140 standing poles marking the graves of long-lost society and environment. The poles, wood coffins, and carved wooden statues with pronounced noses come from the poplar forests of a far cooler and wetter climate." Sources • "Archaeology in China: Bridging East and West," by Andrew Lawler; Science 21 August 2009: Vol. 325 no. 5943 pp. 940-943. • "News and Short Contributions," by Derrold W. Holcomb; Journal of Field Archaeology. • On the Silk Road: An 'Academic' Travelogue Andre Gunder Frank Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 25, No. 46 (Nov. 17, 1990), pp. 2536-2539. • "Sand Sea History of the Taklimakan for the Past 30,000 Years." by Wang Yue and Dong Guangrun Geografiska Annaler. Series A, Physical Geography Vol. 76, No. 3 (1994), pp. 131-141. • "Ancient Inner Asian Nomads: Their Economic Basis and Its Significance in Chinese History," by Nicola Di Cosmo; The Journ...

NOVA Online | Mysterious Mummies of China | The Takla Makan Mummies The Takla Makan Mummies In the late 1980's, perfectly preserved 3000-year-old mummies began appearing in a remote Chinese desert. They had long reddish-blond hair, European features and didn't appear to be the ancestors of modern-day Chinese people. Archaeologists now think they may have been the citizens of an ancient civilization that existed at the crossroads between China and Europe. Mummies of "Tomb 2" This mummy of a young woman was found in 1989. Based on her partially dismembered limbs and gouged out eyes, Chinese archaeologists believe she was a sacrificial victim. This mummified boy, approximately one-year-old, was found in the same grave. He, too, is believed to have been a sacrificial victim who was buried alive. This mummy of a woman, who was approximately 40-years old, was found in the main chamber of the same tomb. Her tall stature, high nose, and red hair indicate that she was of European descent. Mummies from the Wupu cemetery This mummy of an 18 to 20 year old woman is on display at a museum in Hami. Her features, particularly her overbite, indicate Caucasian heritage. This mummified man was approximately 40 years old at the time of his death.