The Taklamakan Desert ( ) is a

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

in northwest

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

's Xinjiang region. Located inside the

Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Xinjiang, Northwestern China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, Ch ...

in Southern Xinjiang, it is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the

Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a Mountain range, range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya ...

to the west, the Tian Shan range to the north, and the Gobi Desert to the east.

Etymology

While most researchers agree on being the Persian word for "place", etymology of ''Takla'' is less clear. The word may be a Uyghur borrowing of the Persian , "to leave alone/out/behind, relinquish, abandon" + ''makan''. Another plausible explanation suggests it is derived from Turki ''taqlar makan'', describing "the place of ruins". Chinese scholars Wang Guowei and Huang Wenbi linked the name to the

Tocharians The Tocharians or Tokharians ( ; ) were speakers of the Tocharian languages, a group of Indo-European languages known from around 7,600 documents from the 6th and 7th centuries, found on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (modern-day Xinj ...

, a historical people of the Tarim Basin, making the meaning of "Taklamakan" similar to "Tocharistan". According to Uyghur researcher Turdi Mettursun Kara, the name Taklamakan comes from the expression Terk-i Mekan. The name is first mentioned as Terk-i Makan (ترك مكان / trk mkan) in the book called Tevarih-i Muskiyun, which was written in 1867 in the Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang. In

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

, it is said to mean "Place of No Return" or "get in and you'll never get out".

Geography

The Taklamakan Desert has an area of , making it slightly smaller than Germany. The desert is part of the

, which is long and wide. It is crossed at its northern and at its southern edge by two branches of the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

, by which travellers sought to avoid the arid wasteland. It is the world's second-largest shifting sand desert, with about 85% made up of shifting sand dunes, ranking 16th in size in a ranking of the world's largest deserts. Dunes range in height from up to as much as . The few breaks in this sea of sand are small patches of alluvial clay. Generally, the steeper sides of the dunes face away from the prevailing winds.

The People's Republic of China ''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the ...

has constructed two cross-desert highways. The Tarim Desert Highway links the cities of Hotan (on the southern edge) and Luntai (on the northern edge) and the Bayingol to Ruoqiang road crosses the desert to the east. As a shifting sand desert, sand dunes constantly shift under the influence of the wind. As a result, moving sand dunes erode grasslands and residential areas. In 1978, the Chinese government launched the Green Great Wall project, aiming to create a forest chain extending from Xinjiang to

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang is a province in northeast China. It is the northernmost and easternmost province of the country and contains China's northernmost point (in Mohe City along the Amur) and easternmost point (at the confluence of the Amur and Us ...

in northern China, to prevent

desertification Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...

. It is one of the largest afforestation projects in the world. In 2024, the 3,046-kilometer green barrier around the Taklamakan Desert was completed, creating a full encirclement of the desert with vegetation. The Golmud-Korla Railway crosses the Taklamakan as well. Named areas in the desert include Ha-la-ma, A-lang-ha and Mai-k'o-tsa-k'o. The Mazartag mountains are located in the western part of the desert.

Climate

Because it lies in the

rain shadow A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side. Evaporated moisture from body of water, bodies of water (such as oceans and larg ...

of the Himalayas, Taklamakan has a cold

desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

. Given its relative proximity with the cold to frigid

air mass In meteorology, an air mass is a volume of air defined by its temperature and humidity. Air masses cover many hundreds or thousands of square miles, and adapt to the characteristics of the surface below them. They are classified according to ...

es in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, extreme temperatures are recorded in wintertime, sometimes well below , while in summer they can rise up to . During the 2008 Chinese winter storms episode, the Taklamakan was reported to be covered, for the first time in its recorded history, entirely with a thin layer of snow reaching , with a temperature of in some observatories. Its extreme inland position, virtually in the very heartland of Asia and thousands of kilometres from any open body of water, accounts for the somewhat wide

diurnal temperature variation In meteorology, diurnal temperature variation is the variation between a high air temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day. Temperature lag Temperature lag, also known as thermal inertia, is an important factor in diur ...

Spring dust storms

Spring, when wind patterns shift and the especially dry land with minimal vegetation warms rapidly, is peak dust storm season, especially in the southern part of the desert. The Sun heats near-surface dust, fueling pockets of

convection Convection is single or Multiphase flow, multiphase fluid flow that occurs Spontaneous process, spontaneously through the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoy ...

. Satellite observations by the Japanese Himawari-9 show the dust creeping upward in mountain valleys throughout the day. Data from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's MODIS instruments show 1.5% decrease in the amount of atmospheric dust in the area each year since the early 2000s.

Oasis

The Taklamakan Desert has very little water, making it hazardous to cross. Merchant caravans on the

would stop for relief at the thriving

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentAmu Darya basin, to the southwest the Afghanistan mountain passes lead to Iran and India, to the east is China, and even to the north ancient towns such as

Almaty Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains ...

can be found. The key oasis towns, watered by rainfall from the mountains, were Kashgar, Miran, Niya,

Yarkand Yarkant County,, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also Shache County,, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also SASM/GNC ro ...

, and Khotan (Hetian) to the south, Kuqa and

Turpan Turpan () or Turfan ( zh, s=吐鲁番) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 693,988 (2020). The historical center of the ...

in the north, and Loulan and Dunhuang in the east. Now, many, such as Miran and Gaochang, are ruined cities in sparsely inhabited areas in the

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

Autonomous Region of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The archaeological treasures found in its sand-buried ruins point to Tocharian, early

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

, Indian, and

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

influences. Its treasures and dangers have been vividly described by Aurel Stein, Sven Hedin, Albert von Le Coq, and Paul Pelliot. Mummies, some 4000 years old, have been found in the region. Later, the Taklamakan was inhabited by

Turkic peoples Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members ...

. Starting with the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

, the Chinese sporadically extended their control to the oasis cities of the Taklamakan Desert to control the important silk route trade across Central Asia. Periods of Chinese rule were interspersed with rule by Turkic, Mongol and Tibetan peoples. The present population consists largely of Turkic Uyghur people and ethnic Han people.

Scientific exploration

This desert was explored by several scholars, including

Xuanzang Xuanzang (; ; 6 April 6025 February 664), born Chen Hui or Chen Yi (), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making ...

, a 7th-century Buddhist monk, and, in the 20th century, the archaeologist Aurel Stein. Atmospheric studies have shown that dust originating from the Taklamakan is blown over the Pacific, where it contributes to cloud formation over the Western United States. Further, the traveling dust redistributes minerals from the Taklamakan to the western U.S. via rainfall. Studies have shown that a specific class of mineral found in the dust, known as K-feldspar, triggers ice formation particularly well. K-feldspar is particularly susceptible to corrosion by acidic atmospheric pollution, such as nitrates and phosphates; exposure to these constituents reduces the ability of the dust to trigger water droplet formation. In May 2023, China announced that it would drill a hole to around depth to investigate the layers of crust in that area. It will not be as deep as the Kola Superdeep Borehole (.China begins drilling a 10-kilometer-deep hole in Earth's crust
India Today, 2023-05-31

Transportation

The Taklamakan Desert is surrounded by the Taklimakan Desert railway loop. The Southern Xinjiang Railway branches from the Lanxin Railway near Turpan, follows the north side of the basin to Kashgar, and curves southeast to Khotan, while Hotan–Ruoqiang railway loops around the south and west side of the Traim. In total, the Taklimakan Desert railway loop contains four different railway lines, including the sections of the Golmud–Korla railway, Hotan–Ruoqiang railway, Kashgar–Hotan railway, and Southern Xinjiang railway. Roads and highways are also available in the desert.

In popular culture

The desert is the main setting for Chinese film series '' Painted Skin'' and '' Painted Skin: The Resurrection''. The Chinese TV series '' Candle in the Tomb'' is mostly spent in this desert as they are searching for the ancient city of Jinjue (see Niya (Tarim Basin)). The issue No. 39 'Soft Places' of Neil Gaiman's '' The Sandman'' takes place in the desert, when

Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...

gets lost in the desert. A portion of the Korean quasi-historical TV drama series '' Queen Seondeok'' takes place in the Taklamakan Desert. Sohwa escapes from Silla with baby Deokman and raises her in the desert. As a teenager, Deokman returns to Silla and uses the knowledge and experience gained from life among international traders in the Taklamakan trading centers to gain the throne of Silla. The desert is showcased in the Japanese animation '' Mobile Suit Gundam 00'', set in the year 2307. On the series, the Taklamakan Desert is the setting of a large-scale military joint operation performed by all the world's blocks of power, and interdicted by the paramilitary organization Celestial Being.

References

Citations

Sources

* Kara, Turdi Mettursun (March 1, 2022)
""Taklamakan" Adının Kökeni Üzerine"
''Korkut Ata Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi'' (7): 572–577
doi:10.51531/korkutataturkiyat.1070366
ISSN 2687-5675. S2CID 248487312. * Jarring, Gunnar (1997). "The

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

Takla-makan", ''Turkic Languages'', Vol. 1, pp. 227–240. * Hopkirk, Peter (1980). ''Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia''. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press. . * Hopkirk, Peter (1994). '' The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia''. . * Tamm, Eric Enno (2010). ''The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds''. Vancouver/Toronto/Berkeley: Douglas & McIntyre. (cloth); (ebook). * Warner, Thomas T. (2004). ''Desert Meteorology''. Cambridge University Press, 612 pages. . *

Videography

* ''Treasure seekers : China's frozen desert'', National Geographic Society (2001)

External links

Photos of area in China
{{Authority control Deserts of China Deserts and xeric shrublands Ecoregions of China Ergs Geography of Xinjiang Sites along the Silk Road Physiographic provinces Ecoregions of Asia Palearctic ecoregions World Heritage Tentative List for China