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 by Turkic peoples. Starting with the Han Dynasty, the Chinese sporadically extended their control to the oasis cities of the Taklamakan Desert in order 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. This desert was explored by several scientists such as Xuanzang, a monk in the 7th century and by the archaeologist Aurel Stein in the 20th century. Atmospheric studies have shown that dust originating from the Taklamakan is blown over