What animals live in the Taklamakan Desert?

The desert also supports a small population of critters such as rabbits, jerboas, field mice, and gerbils living in the dunes. The long-eared hedgehog, which lives on a predominantly insectivorous diet, is also common. The bird species of the Taklamakan Desert include the Tarim Jay and tufted larks.

What animals are in the Taklamakan Desert?

What are 5 facts about the Taklamakan Desert?

The Taklamakan Desert is a desert in Southwest Xinjiang in Northwest China. This is one of the largest sandy deserts in the world. The desert's natural conditions are adverse, and there are serious hazards from wind-drift sand. The area is characterized by a dry climate, low rainfall, and high evaporation.

Who lives in the Taklamakan Desert?

The present population consists largely of Turkic Uyghur people and ethnic Han Chinese.

Why is the Taklamakan Desert called the Sea of Death?

The desert's name is derived from the Uyghur language and means "the place of no return", or "sea of death", highlighting the harsh and inhospitable nature of the desert.

Taklamakan Desert 101 - China's Largest Desert.

What is the lost city in Taklamakan Desert?

The lost city of Niyna in the Taklamakan Desert is located roughly 115 km north of modern-day Niya, in China's Uygur Autonomous Region. In ancient times, it was named Cadota in its native language and Jingjué in Chinese.

What does Taklamakan actually mean?

Was the Taklamakan Desert, China's largest desert with its name meaning “the place of no return”, really hospitable for human beings in historical times? Shifting dunes in the Taklamakan Desert.

Can you visit the Taklamakan Desert?

Can tourists visit the Taklamakan Desert? Yes, tourists can visit parts of the desert via guided tours, desert highways, and key access towns like Korla, Luntai, Kuqa, or Hotan. Some routes pass through scenic or cultural spots along the ancient Silk Road.

How cold is the Taklamakan Desert?

Taklimakan Desert is the largest desert in China and second largest in the world. Taklimakan Desert is a temperate desert, which belongs to typical continental climate. The temperature changes greatly and annual precipitation is low. The average temperature of July is 25 ℃, and that of January is about -9 ~ -10 ℃.

Has anyone crossed the Taklamakan Desert?

Charles and Gwo celebrate the completion of the first ever crossing of the Taklamakan Desert.

How old is the Taklamakan Desert?

Dating of these sequences suggests that the Taklimakan Desert came into being no later than 25 million years ago. The desert's formation was the result of an extremely arid climate caused by the rain shadow effect and an abundant supply of sediments shed from the mountain fronts.

Is there any water in the Taklamakan?

Encircled by tall mountains near the geographic center of Eurasia, the Taklamakan Desert is deprived of moisture from all sources—monsoonal, westerly, and Arctic. Consequently, precipitation is scant, less than 100 mm a year in most areas.

How deep are the Taklamakan sand dunes?

As wind moves the surface landscape of the Taklamakan Desert, sand dunes are common throughout. Layers of sand are deposited in even to a depth of 1000 feet, while individual dunes may reach 500 feet in height and over 1000 feet in width.

What plants live in the Taklamakan Desert?

Vegetation is rare, though richer in the riverbeds, where there are individual shrubs of tamarisk, saxaulon and nitre bush (a saltwort), and annual halophytes (salt-tolerant plants).

Who were the mummies in the Taklamakan Desert?

The Takla Makan Mummies. In the late 1980's, perfectly preserved 3000-year-old mummies began appearing in a remote Chinese desert. They had long reddish-blond hair, European features and didn't appear to be the ancestors of modern-day Chinese people.

What is another name for the Taklamakan Desert?

This is reputed to be the world's second largest shifting-sand desert covering an area of over 33, 700 square kilometers (over 13,000 square miles). In Uigur language, Takla Makan means 'you can get into it but can never get out' and the desert has another name 'the Sea of Death'.

Does anyone live in the Taklamakan Desert?

Apart from activity around the oilfields, the Taklamakan desert is a relatively lifeless place. The people of the Taklamakan, are mostly Uyghur, a Turkic ethnic group mainly found in Eastern and Central Asia, hence don't look stereotypically Chinese.

Why is the Taklamakan Desert nicknamed the Sea of Death?

Lying between the Tien Shan and Kunlun mountain ranges, the Taklamakan Desert is a waterless death trap, experiencing an average annual rainfall of just 0.4in (1cm). Legend states that you can get into to the Taklamakan, but you will never get out.

What animals live in Taklamakan Desert?

Wildlife in the Taklamakan Desert

Despite its harsh environment, some animals survive in the Taklamakan. These include wild Bactrian camels, jerboas, foxes, and a few species of birds. Many animals rely on the desert's few oases for water and food.

What does taklamakan mean in English?

TAKLAMAKAN (Uighur toponym probably derived from the Arabic tark, 'out, relinquish,' and makan, 'place'), the largest desert in China, and one of the largest deserts in the world.

Does it snow in the Taklamakan Desert?

The Taklamakan Desert, in the center of the Tarim Basin, is surrounded by mountains, allowing moisture to gather in the basin. The arrival of cold air and warm water vapor results in rain and snow, creating an unusual winter spectacle in the desert.

What is the hidden city in the desert?

Rub' al-Khali

Most tales of the lost city locate it somewhere in the Rub' al Khali desert, also known as the Empty Quarter, a vast area of sand dunes covering most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, including most of Saudi Arabia and parts of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Why did the Silk Road avoid the Taklimakan Desert?

The geography of the Taklamakan Desert significantly impacted trade routes by acting as both an obstacle and a facilitator for caravans. Traders had to navigate around or through this challenging terrain, which influenced their travel plans and routes.

How do I go to Taklamakan Desert?

The road from Kashgar to the desert takes a couple hours to cover, after which you can take time to explore the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, or organize a camel ride or short trek. Lunch is in Yarkant (240 km or 150 m from Kashgar), with a stop at the Amannishahan Tomb.

Why does China have a desert?

The expansion of the Gobi is attributed mostly to human activities, locally driven by deforestation, overgrazing, and depletion of water resources, as well as to climate change. China has tried various plans to slow the expansion of the desert, which have met with some success.