One of the largest deserts in the world, the Taklamakan Desert covers an area almost the size of Finland and barely smaller than Germany. It covers 37,000 square kilometers, making it the largest desert in China. The name Taklamakan means “place of no return” because according to folklore the desert is so hot and vast that once you enter it there will be no way out.

Others refer to the vast and arid land as a “place of ruins” or “sea of ​​death” because there is very little water to support life there, except for the few oases which are rare. However, despite its harshness, the Taklamakan Deaert played a vital role in the Silk Road trade, as two of the desert oases served as trade points or “manpower” points for traders.

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Where is the Taklamakan Desert?

This vast desert sits right in the middle of China’s largest interior basin, the Tarim Basin. Located in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Taklamakan Desert is flanked by two towering mountain ranges: the Tien Shan mountain ranges to the north and Kunlun to the south.

It also has the Pamir Mountains and the Tian Shan (ancient Mount Imeon) to the west and the famous Gobi Desert to the east.

The topography of the Taklamakan desert

Taklamakan is the second largest quicksand desert in the world since 85% of its total area is made up of crescent-shaped dunes. It is practically sterile and therefore devoid of abundant vegetation. Taklamakan dunes come in various shapes including dome shaped dunes, fish scale dunes, pyramid shaped dunes, crescent dunes, honeycomb dunes, dunes beam-shaped, composite longitudinal sand ridges and dendritic dunes.

Most of the dunes here have an average height of 100-200m while others can reach 200m. According to UNESCO, the ever-changing nature of the sand in the desert has stretched Taklamakan about 100 km to the south over the past thousand years.

There are also small mountain ranges in the desert as well as the Tarim River running through its northern edge.

The climate of the Taklamakan desert

The place has a typical continental climate with strong wind gusts, very little precipitation and a large temperature change from day to night and vice versa. Summers can be very hot in Taklamakan with temperatures reaching 104 ° F (40 ° C). Winters, on the other hand, can be cold with temperatures dropping to extremely low levels of −4 ° F (−20 ° C). Spring and summer are the best seasons for dust storms in this part of China. During a dust storm in Taklamahan, winds can carry sand and dust up to 10 kilometers in the air.

Plants And Animals Of Taklamakan

Water is generally scarce in the desert, which is why only a few plants and animals live there. Those who do can live without water for long periods of time and are adapted to life in the desert.

A notable resident of Taklamakan is the long-eared jerkin. A small rodent that feeds on flying insects. They are nocturnal and would spend the day hiding in underground burrows. They are also called this because their ears make up about a third of their body. There are also several camels crossing the desert at one point. These can live without water for months and store fluids inside the bumps on the back.

The place is also home to the Asian wild ass, wolves, foxes, gazelles and wild boars. The plants are very rare due to the climate and conditions, but there are a few that manage to survive such as tamarisk and reeds.

The people of Taklamakan

The small village of Yatongusi is located 10 kilometers from the Desert Road and was built around a tiny oasis. The village was founded by nomadic herders who settled here a hundred years ago. The inhabitants of this village as well as all the other villages which border the periphery of the desert come from a Turkish ethnic group called the Uyghurs.

Considered to be from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Uyghurs are a Turkish-speaking Muslim minority in China. Most of them are Sunni Muslims. They are believed to be the descendants of the Uyghur Empire which stretched from the Caspian Sea to Manchuria during the 8^e century.

The Uyghur people have lived in the Xinjiang region for a thousand years before China annexed the region in the mid-18th century. It is a diverse ethnic group due to years of migration to the region.

Today, there are around 10 to 15 million Uyghurs in China, 300,000 of whom live in neighboring countries. The place being arid and water scarce, the Uyghurs practiced irrigation to water their crops. Their main plant products include corn, rice, wheat, cotton, and grapes. They are the biggest producers of grapes in China.

The past of the Taklamakan desert: the mummies of Taklamakan

Since the beginning of the 20^e century, explorers discovered the remains of well-preserved mummies near the Tarim Basin in northwestern China. What is intriguing is that these mummies with their blonde or red hair, aquiline noses, and high checkered bones indicate that they were of European descent.

The best-preserved is the mummy of a white woman believed to be in her forties when she died in China 3,000 years ago. Her name is “La Belle de Loulan”: another mummy known as the Cherchne man is believed to be two meters tall and can be seen in her European-style tunic and tartan pants. Analysis of their clothes shows that the fabric of their clothes was made of a kind of wool typical of European sheep.

The dry and salty conditions of the Taklamakan Desert have preserved the bodies and their clothing as well as the artefacts with which they were buried. Recent DNA analysis revealed that these ancient mummies were Bronze Age Europeans who may have lived in the area thousands of years ago. However, their Celtic origins are still debated.

Some experts believe they may have been the citizens of a lost civilization when the land was not so arid and barren. Others believe these mummies offer clues to early humans’ migratory patterns. The presence of these mummies shows that the region could have been a melting pot of migrants from different lands.