Lop Nur (ear-shaped) from space, September 1992

Lop Nur ("Lake Lop"; alternately Lop Nor, Lo-pu po or Taitema Lake) is a group of small, now seasonal salt lakes and marshes between the Taklamakan and Kuruktag deserts in the southeastern portion of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, between 42.14° N 87.12° E and 42.15° N 87.52° E. Image File history File links Lop Nur, China - September 1992 image description here File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Lop Nur, China - September 1992 image description here File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A lake is a body of water surrounded by land. ... The Taklamakan is a desert of Central Asia, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Xinjiang (Chinese: 新疆; pinyin: Xīnjiāng; Wade-Giles: Hsin1-chiang1; Postal Pinyin: Sinkiang; literal meaning: New Frontier; Uyghur: شينجاڭ) Uyghurs Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), sometimes known as Chinese Turkestan, Eastern Turkestan (Turkestan also spelt Turkistan) or Uyghuristan. ...

The lake system into which the Tarim River empties is the last remnant of the historical post-glacial Tarim Lake, which once covered more than 10,000 square kilometers in the Tarim Basin. Lop Nur is hydrologically endorheic— there is no outlet. Though it was determined to be a single salt lake by ancient Chinese geographers, it has largely dried up from its 1928 measured area of 3100 km², and spreading desert, apparently windblown sandy loess, has shifted the lake system 30 to 40 km westwards during the past 40 years [1]. A partial cause for the destabilization of the desert has been the cutting of poplars and willows for firewood [2]; in response, a reserve was established in 2003 to preserve 3520 square kilometres of Diverse-leaved poplar. The Tarim River (Mandarin Dayan) is the principal river of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the Peoples Republic of China. ... Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin. ... The shores of Lake Hart, an endorheic desert lake in South Australia In geography, an endorheic basin is a watershed from which there is no outflow of water (either on the surface as rivers, or underground by flow or diffusion through rock or permeable material). ... 1928 was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Among the classifications of soil types, loess (pronounced lös, from the German Löß, and ultimately from Swiss German lösch, loose) is a fine, silty, windblown (eolian) type of unconsolidated deposit, or, sometimes the term refers to the soil derived from it. ... This article is about woody plants of the genus Populus. ...

Former water resources of the Tarim River and Lop Nur nurtured the kingdom of Loulan, an ancient Chinese civilization along the Silk Road, which skirted the lake-filled basin. Loulan became a client-state of the Chinese empire in 55 BCE, renamed Shanshan. Once the lake also supported a thriving Tocharian culture. Archaeologists have discovered the buried remains of settlements, as well as several of the Tarim mummies, along its ancient shoreline. Marco Polo passed near the lake, and the explorers Nicholas Michailovitch Prjevalsky and Sven Hedin visited the area. Loulan (樓蘭; pinyin: Lóulán) is an ancient town founded in the second century BC on the north-eastern edge of the Taklamakan desert. ... The Silk Road (Traditional Chinese: 絲綢之路; Simplified Chinese: 丝绸之路; pinyin: sÄ« chóu zhÄ« lù, Persian راه ابریشم Râh-e Abrisham) was an interconnected series of routes through Southern Asia traversed by caravan and ocean vessel, and connecting Changan (todays Xian), China, with Antioch, Syria, as well as other points. ... Shanshan (鄯善; pinyin: Shànshàn ) is the Chinese name for Loulan, a kingdom that existed roughly from 200BC-1000AD at the north-east of the Taklamakan desert. ... Tocharian refers to an Indo-European culture that inhabited the Tarim basin in what is now Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, northwestern Peoples Republic of China. ... Importance and applicability Archaeology is the study of human nature and attempts to illuminate the question of what it means to be human. ... A Tarim Basin mummy photographed by Aurel Stein circa 1910. ... Marco Polo, after a painting in Badia, Rome Marco Polo (b. ... Nicholai Michailovitch Prjevalsky (April 12, 1839 - November 1, 1888 (Gregorian calendar)) was a Russian geographer and explorer in central and eastern Asia. ... Sven Hedin. ...

Since 1964 the lake has been used as a nuclear test site. Until 1996 45 nuclear tests were conducted. The headquarters of the test base is at Malan, about 125 km northwest of Qinggir. [3] Remains of one of the tests are visible at 41.722602° N 88.736184° E. 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A nuclear test explosion is an experiment involving the detonation of a nuclear weapon. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... A nuclear test explosion is an experiment involving the detonation of a nuclear weapon. ...

External links

• Information on the Lop Nur nuclear test facility
• Detailed satellite imagery of Lop Nur site
• "Desert intrudes upon Tarim Lake"
• Satellite imagery from Google Earth