Where is the 337,000 km2 Taklamakan Desert?
Taklamakan Desert Tomb" is mostly spent in this desert as they are searching for the ancient city of Jinjue (see Niya (Tarim Basin).) The issue #39 'Soft Places' of Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" takes place in the desert, when Marco Polo gets lost in the 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
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