Taklamakan Desert

The Taklamakan Desert, also known as 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 Arabic tark, to leave alone/out/behind, relinquish, abandon + makan, place. Another plausible explanation suggests it is derived from Turki taqlar makan, describing the place of ruins.The Taklamakan Desert has an area of 337,000 km2 (130,116 sq. mi.), and includes the Tarim Basin, which is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long and 400 kilometres (250 mi) wide. It is crossed at its northern and at its southern edge by two branches of the Silk Road as travelers sought to avoid the arid wasteland. It is the worlds second largest shifting sand desert with about 85% made up of shifting sand dunes ranking 18th in size in a ranking of the worlds largest non polar deserts. Some geographers and ecologists prefer to regard the Taklamakan Desert as separate and independent from the Gobi Desert region to its east.