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The Desert of Death - Taklamakan

While traveling through the ancient Silk Route that also passes through the Taklamakan Desert, the great traveler Marco Polo commented that the traveler would often hear voices and spirits beckoning him to abandon the path and walk through the desert instead. The inevitable result would be to lose his way and die of thirst. In Taklamakan (also Taklimakan) the same tune rings true since it means, “if you go in, you won’t come back”. Some even call it the “Desert of Death”. Even today, it remains so - a place of mystery, extremely remote, incredible beautiful, but importantly the crucial link between East and West Asia.

Covering an area of 270,000 sq km of the Tarim Basin in central Asia, Taklamakan is the largest sand-only desert in the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China. At least two sub routes of the Silk Route crosses the Taklamakan, the key oasis towns being Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan in the southwest, Kuqa and Turfan in the north, and Loulan & Dunhuang in the east. White Jade River and Yarkant flow into the Taklamakan, the former originating from the Kunlun mountains while the latter from the Tien Shan range. Though it is the largest sand-only desert, it can become freezing cold, on account of the great mountains all around it - the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Karakoram. Three of the biggest ranges in the world are in the immediate proximity of Taklamakan.

Though the fear of fatality in the ‘desert of death’ had prevented people from venturing into Taklamakan, many European travelers have trekked through this formidable desert in search of archaeological treasures buried within its sand dunes. Notable among them are Sven Hedin, Aurel Stein, Albert von LeCoq and Paul Pelliot. But nothing beats the recent travels of Antonio Graceffo who conquered Taklamakan in a tricycle. “The most memorable day was the sixth day. There was a head wind that lasted for five hours, pelting me with sand. It came in a continuous force of hot air, blowing mercilessly in my face and eyes, like walking into a hot hair dryer, dragging away my tricycle”, he wrote. According to another traveler, there are venomous snakes abounding in Taklamakan as also frequent sand storms ‘blowing away everything’. Besides, people have to withstand great temperature variations - boiling heat during the day and freezing cold at night.

The archaeological findings in Taklamakan are a mixed lot. Along with ruins found in the desert that suggest Indian/Buddhist influence, mummies (4000 year old) belonging to Europeans have also been unearthed. They appear to have been members of the Tocharins that spoke Tocharian, an Indo-European language. The Taklamakan was later inhabited by Turkic people. In order to secure control over trade across Central Asia through the Silk Route, the Chinese often took over the oasis townships of Taklamakan. However, the present inhabitants consist mostly of Turkic Uyghur and Kazakh people along with Han Chinese.

If you love adventure, crossing the Taklamakan can be among the most memorable journeys you can take. You are sure to cherish the experience for a lifetime.