Concept
The Taklamakan Desert (ˌtæk.lə.məˈkæn; , Xiao'erjing: تَاكْلامَاقًا شَاموْ, Такәламаган Шамә; تەكلىماكان قۇملۇقى, Täklimakan Qumluqi; also spelled Teklimakan) is a desert in Southwestern Xinjiang in Northwest China. Located inside the Tarim Basin, it is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the north, and the Gobi Desert to the east. While most researchers agree on makan being the Persian word for "place", etymology of Takla is less clear. The word may be a Uyghur borrowing of the Persian tark, "to leave alone/out/behind, relinquish, abandon" + makan. Another plausible explanation suggests it is derived from Turki taqlar makan, describing "the place of ruins". Chinese scholars Wang Guowei and Huang Wenbi linked the name to the Tocharians, a historical people of the Tarim Basin, making the meaning of "Taklamakan" similar to "Tocharistan". According to Uyghur scholar Turdi Mettursun Kara, the name Taklamakan comes from the expression Terk-i Mekan. The name is first mentioned as Terk-i Makan (ترك مكان / trk mkan) in the book called Tevarih-i Muskiyun, which was written in 1867 in the Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang. In folk etymology, it is said to mean "Place of No Return" or "get in and you'll never get out". The Taklamakan Desert has an area of , making it slightly smaller than Germany. The desert is part of 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, by which 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 17th in size in a ranking of the world's largest deserts. Dunes range in height from up to as much as . The few breaks in this sea of sand are small patches of alluvial clay. Generally, the steeper sides of the dunes face away from the prevailing winds. The People's Republic of China has constructed two cross-desert highways.