Takla Makan Desert

Takla Makan Desert, also Taklimakan, desert in north-western China, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, between the Kunlun Mountains on the south and the Tian Mountains on the north. It occupies most of the Tarim Basin, the river skirting it to the north. It stretches about 970 km (600 mi) from east to west, 400 km (250 mi) from north to south, and has an area of about 297,850 sq km (115,000 sq mi). Formerly a fertile region and a centre of Buddhist civilization, it has become a bleak, uninhabited area of drifting sand dunes. The largest oases are Shache and Hotan (Ho-t'ien) in the south-west.