page_title: Taklamakan Desert
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Taklamakan Desert / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Tarim Basin in the 3rd century A.D.
context_page_description: The Taklamakan Desert is a desert in Southwest Xinjiang in Northwest China. It is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains and Tian Shan to the west and north and the Gobi Desert to the east.
context_section_description: The Taklamakan Desert has an area of 337,000 km² (130,000 sq mi), making it slightly smaller than Germany and is part of 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 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 16th in size in a ranking of the world's largest deserts.
  The People's Republic of China has constructed two cross-desert highways. The Tarim Desert Highway links the cities of Hotan (on the southern edge) and Luntai (on the northern edge) and the Bayingol to Ruoqiang road crosses the desert to the east.
  In recent years, the desert has expanded in some areas, its sands enveloping farms and villages as a result of desertification.
  "When I woke up one morning, I found I couldn't open the door because of the weight of sand that had accumulated overnight. My crops were buried too, so I had no choice but to move" -Memet Simay, Qira County resident
  The Golmud-Korla Railway (presently, under construction; expected completion time, 2019) will cross the Taklamakan as well.
  Named areas in the desert include Ha-la-ma, A-lang-ha and Mai-k'o-tsa-k'o. The Mazartag mountains are located in the western part of the desert.
caption: Settlements, 3rd century AD.
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