TAKLAMAKAN:GO IN AND YOU WON'T COME OUT

Wind-blown sand shrouds the Taklamakan desert in western china for most of the year. Sand dunes rise as high as 1000ft and when winds reach hurricane force, they blow up walls of sand three time as high .The name taklamakan is from the Turkic for go in and you won’t come out. The TaklamakanDesert also known as Taklimakan, (Chinese (Pinyin) Taklimakan Shamo or (Wade-Giles romanization) T’a-k’o-la-ma-kan Sha-moDesert, )is a desert in Central Asia, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

Forming the greater part of the TarimBasin, west-central China.

The Takla Makan is flanked by high mountain ranges: the Tien Shan to the north, the KunlunMountains to the south, and the Pamirs to the west. There is a gradual transition to the Lop Nur basin in the east; in the south and west, between the sandy desert and the mountains, lies a band of sloping desert lowland composed of pebble-detritus deposits.

Taklamakan is one of the largest sandy deserts in the world, ranking 15th in size in a ranking of the world's largest non-polar deserts.It covers an area of 270,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi) of the TarimBasin, 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 as travelers sought to avoid the arid wasteland. In recent years, the People's Republic of China has constructed a cross-desert highway that links the cities of Hotan (on the southern edge) and Luntai (on the northern edge).

Taklamakan is the paradigm of a cold desert climate.The Takla Makan’s climate is moderately warm and markedly continental, with a maximum annual temperature range of 70 °F (39 °C). Precipitation is extremely low, ranging from 1.5 inches (38 mm) per year in the west to 0.4 inch (10 mm) annually in the east. The air temperature in the summer is high, rising to as much as 100 °F (38 °C) on the eastern edge of the desert. In July the average air temperature is 77 °F (25 °C) in the eastern regions. Winters are cold: in January the average air temperature is 14 to 16 °F (−10 to −9 °C), and the lowest temperature reached in winter generally falls below −4 °F (−20 °C).

Since the Tarim depression is an internal-drainage basin, the entire runoff from the surrounding mountains collects in the basin itself, feeding the rivers and the groundwater strata. In all probability, the groundwater table under the sands flows from the west to the arid basin of Lop Nur in the east. The importance of precipitation in moistening the sands and feeding the groundwaters is slight, however, because of its small quantity and high rate of evaporation. The rivers draining the KunlunMountains penetrate about 60 to 120 miles (100 to 200 km) into the desert, gradually drying up in the sands. Only the HotanRiver crosses the centre of the desert and, in summer, occasionally carries its waters to the TarimRiver.

Vegetation is extremely sparse in the Takla Makan; almost the entire region is devoid of plant cover. In depressions among the sand dunes, where the groundwater lies no deeper than 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 metres) from the surface, thin thickets of tamarisk, nitre bushes, and reeds may be found.

A vast alluvial fan between the Kunlun and Altun mountain ranges forming the southern border of the TaklamakanDesert, the left side appearing blue from water flowing in many streams

http://astore.amazon.com/httphubpa08cf-20

The thick strata of moving sands, however, prevent the wider spread of this vegetation. The vegetation is richer along the edges of the desert—the area where the sand dunes meet the river valleys and deltas and where the groundwaters lie comparatively close to the surface. There, in addition to the plants mentioned above, a number of species characteristic of river valleys are found: Turanga poplar, oleaster, camel thorn, members of the Zygophyllaceae (caltrop) family, and saltworts. Sand dunes in hummocks frequently form around the scrub.

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.

There is no water on the desert, and it is hazardous to cross. Merchant caravans on the Silk Road would stop for relief at the thriving oasis towns.

The key oasis towns, watered by rainfall from the mountains, were Kashgar, Marin, Niya, Yarkand, and Khotan (Hetian) to the south, Kuqa and Turpan in the north, and Loulan and Dunhuang in the east. Now many, such as Marin and Gaochang, are ruined cities in sparsely inhabited areas in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

The archeological treasures found in its sand-buried ruins point to Tocharian, early Hellenistic, Indian, and Buddhist influences. Its treasures and dangers have been vividly described by Aurel Stein, Sven hedin

Anyone who visits the TaklimakanDesert has to be prepared for some severe climatic conditions. This is the driest and warmest desert in all of China. On a clear day, an observer might see eight or ten tornadoes from a single viewpoint, and sandstorms in April and May can darken the midday sky until it looks like night. But because this ecoregion is so inhospitable to humans, it's also a biological oasis--the last refuge of wild bactrian camels, and one of the last homes of Asiatic wild asses.

One concern people have about this region is the effects of nuclear testing in Lop Nor. Another concern is the decline in air quality as winds blow dust from lakes that have been dried through irrigation. Also, as people settle in the area, they divert water from oases to expand their crop irrigation. This threatens the existing oases and the creatures that depend on them. Finally, the gene pool of wild camels could be threatened by inter-breeding with the abundant domestic camels.