Takla Makan

Takla Makan, also Taklimakan, desert of northwestern China, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, between the Kunlun (K'un-lun) Mountains on the south and the Tian Shan on the north. It stretches about 970 km (about 600 mi) from east to west, 400 km (250 mi) from north to south, and has an area of about 360,000 sq km (about 140,000 sq mi).

The center of the desert, which has almost no precipitation, is lifeless. However, intermittent mountain streams flowing toward the desert, notably the Keriya, Hotan, Qarqan, and Kaxgar rivers, and the Tarim flowing along the northern limit, provide water for oases. The largest oases are in the northwest and southwest.

Once a fertile region and a center of Buddhist civilization, it became a bleak, uninhabited area of drifting sand dunes over the centuries. Two routes of the ancient Silk Road followed the oases skirting the Takla Makan. The oases of Shache and Hotan were visited by Venetian explorer Marco Polo on his historic 13th-century journey. Today, the oases’ inhabitants are mostly Uygurs, a traditionally nomadic Turkic people.