Taklamakan Desert

The Taklamakan Desert is a vast, extremely arid desert in the Tarim Basin of northwestern China, covering about 337,000 square kilometers between the Kunlun, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges. Sand dunes rise as high as 91 meters across a landscape that is almost entirely shifting sand, with only scattered patches of alluvial clay. Summers can reach 40 degrees Celsius while winters drop below minus 20, a swing driven by the rain shadow of the Himalayas combined with dry continental air masses. Historically the desert was a formidable barrier on the Silk Road, crossed only by caravans stopping at its oasis towns.