Taklamakan Desert

node · earth · Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

A shifting-sand desert of roughly 337,000 square kilometres filling the Tarim Basin, bounded by the Tian Shan to the north, the Kunlun to the south and the Pamir to the west. It is not a corridor and was not a route: traffic went around its rim, following the meltwater streams that descend from the enclosing ranges and support a chain of oases. This is why the trade cities sit in two arcs rather than a line. Its extreme aridity has preserved textiles, documents and human remains that would not survive elsewhere, which is why so much of the primary evidence for the routes comes from its margins. The name's derivation is contested; the popular gloss 'go in and you will not come out' is folk etymology.