Taklamakan Desert Taklamakan Desert The Taklamakan Desert (, Xiao'erjing: ; ; ), also spelled "Taklimakan" and "Teklimakan", is a desert in southwest Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, northwest China. It is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains and Tian Shan (ancient Mount Imeon) to the west and north, and the Gobi Desert to the east. The name may be an Uyghur borrowing of the Persian , "to leave alone/out/behind, relinquish, abandon" + , "place". Some sources claimed it means "Place of No Return", more commonly interpreted as "once you get in, you'll never get out" or similar. Another
Taklamakan Desert plausible explanation suggests it is derived from Turki "taqlar makan", describing "the place of ruins". The Taklamakan Desert has an area of , making it slightly smaller than Germany, and includes the Tarim Basin, which is long and wide. It is crossed at its northern and at its southern edge by two branches of the Silk Road as 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. Some geographers and ecologists prefer