num_pages: 224
description: To the Chinese the fearsome Taklamakan was always the 'desert of death' - 'You go in but you never come out.'Steeped in legend and seemingly uncrossable, this desert is an empty vastness 5,000 feet above sea-level, with treacherous dunes often rising 1,000 feet higher. For centuries the Silk Road, the ancient trade route linking Imperial Rome to China, skirted the edge of the desert to north and south, following the line of the isolated oasis towns along the foothills of the towering Tien Shan and Kun Lun mountain ranges. Even so, many caravans of merchants (with silk, gold and other precious cargoes), soldiers and also pilgrims lost their way between these oases never to be heard of again, often engulfed in the terrifying and all-devouring karaburan, or black hurricane.Charles Blackmore, together with thirty camels and a party of British, Chinese and Uyghurs, set out to cross this daunting desert for the first time ever, from end to end, a distance of 780 miles. For fifty-nine days the party, often pushed to the limits of their endurance and out of reach of all help, moved relentlessly forward, overcoming sickness, injury and extremes of temperature in an awesome wasteland that sustains no life or water. Despite the loss of camels and moments of near mutiny among members of the crossing party, they emerged triumphant to take their place in the history of exploration.
language: English
title: The Worst Desert on Earth: Crossing the Taklamakan
titlecomplete: The Worst Desert on Earth: Crossing the Taklamakan
genres: Adventure, Travel, Nonfiction, China
ratings_count: 47
publisher: Trafalgar Square