Taklamakan Desert to regard the Taklamakan Desert as separate and independent from the Gobi Desert region to its east. The People's Republic of China has constructed two cross-desert highways. The Tarim Desert Highway links the cities of Hotan (on the southern edge) and Luntai (on the northern edge), and the Bayingol to Ruoqiang road crosses the desert to the east. In recent years, the desert has expanded in some areas, its sands enveloping farms and villages as a result of desertification. The Golmud-Korla Railway (presently, under construction; expected completion time, 2019) will cross the Taklamakan as well. Because it lies in the
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