While most researchers agree on makan being the Persian word for "place", etymology of Takla is less clear. The word may be a Uyghur borrowing of the Persian tark, "to leave alone/out/behind, relinquish, abandon" + makan.[1][2] “Taklā” also means “bald” in Hindi/Urdu, so it translates to “bald land” meaning land with no vegetation.[citation needed] Another plausible explanation suggests it is derived from Turkitaqlar makan, describing "the place of ruins".[3][4] Chinese scholars Wang Guowei and Huang Wenbi linked the name to the Tocharians, a historical people of the Tarim Basin, making the meaning of "Taklamakan" similar to "Tocharistan".[5] 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.[6]
In folk etymology, it is said to mean "Place of No Return" or "get in and you'll never get out".[7][8][9][10]
The Taklamakan Desert has an area of 337,000 km2 (130,000 sq mi),[11] making it slightly smaller than Germany. The desert is part of the Tarim Basin, which is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long and 400 kilometres (250 mi) wide. It is crossed at its northern and at its southern edge by two branches of the Silk Road, by which travellers sought to avoid the arid wasteland.[12]
It is the world's second-largest shifting sand desert, with about 85% made up of shifting sand dunes,[13] ranking 16th in size in a ranking of the world's largest deserts.[14]
Dunes range in height from 60 feet (18 m) up to as much as 300 feet (91 m). 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.[15]
In recent years, the desert has expanded in some areas, its sands enveloping farms and villages as a result of desertification.
"When I woke up one morning, I found I couldn't open the door because of the weight of sand that had accumulated overnight. My crops were buried too, so I had no choice but to move" -Memet Simay, Qira County resident[16]
Named areas in the desert include Ha-la-ma, A-lang-ha and Mai-k'o-tsa-k'o.[17] The Mazartag mountains are located in the western part of the desert.
Climate
Desert life near YarkandSand dunes captured by NASA's Landsat-7
Because it lies in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, Taklamakan has a cold desert climate. Given its relative proximity with the cold to frigid air masses in Siberia, extreme temperatures are recorded in wintertime, sometimes well below −20 °C (−4 °F), while in summer they can rise up to 40 °C (104 °F). 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 4 centimetres (1.6 in), with a temperature of −26.1 °C (−15 °F) in some observatories.[18]
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.
Climate data for Taklamakan Desert (Tazhong), elevation 1,099 m (3,606 ft), (1996–2020 normals, extremes 1981–2010)
Map including the Taklamakan Desert (1917)The Molcha (Moleqie) River forms a vast alluvial fan at the southern border of the Taklamakan Desert, as it leaves the Altyn-Tagh mountains and enters the desert in the western part of the Qiemo County. The left side appears blue from water flowing in many streams. The picture is taken in May, when the river is full with the snow/glacier meltwater.[21]
The Taklamakan Desert has very little water making it hazardous to cross. Merchant caravans on the Silk Road would stop for relief at the thriving oasis towns.[22] It was in close proximity to many of the ancient civilizations—to the Northwest is the Amu 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 can be found.
Later, the Taklamakan was inhabited by Turkic peoples. Starting with the Han dynasty, 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.[26]
Scientific exploration
This desert was explored by several scholars, including Xuanzang, 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.[27] 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.[28]
In May 2023, China announced that it would drill a hole to around 11 kilometres (36,000 ft) depth to investigate the layers of crust in that area. It will not be as deep as the Kola Superdeep Borehole (12,262 metres (40,230 ft).[29]
The issue No. 39 'Soft Places' of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman takes place in the desert, when Marco Polo 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.
See also
Bezeklik Caves – Buddhist cave grottos in Xinjiang, China
^Hobbs, Joseph J. (December 14, 2007). World Regional Geography (6th ed.). Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc. p. 368. ISBN978-0495389507. Archived from the original on February 19, 2017. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
^"Holding back the sands of time". China Daily. May 27, 2013. Retrieved December 15, 2019. Memet Simay's household was one of 446 in Qira township forced to relocate in the 1980s, although the family has since returned to the area. "When I woke up one morning, I found I couldn't open the door because of the weight of sand that had accumulated overnight. My crops were buried too, so I had no choice but to move," he recalled.
^Fox, Douglas (December 22, 2014). "The Dust Detectives". High Country News. Vol. 46, no. 22. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
Tamm, Eric Enno (2010). The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds. Vancouver/Toronto/Berkeley: Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN9781553652694 (cloth); ISBN978-1-55365-638-8 (ebook).
Warner, Thomas T. (2004). Desert Meteorology. Cambridge University Press, 612 pages. ISBN0-521-81798-6.
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