Takla Makan Desert is Chinas largest desert, situated in the middle of the largest Basin, Tarim in Xinjiang Province. This is reputed to be the worlds second largest shifting-sand desert covering an area of over 33, 700 square kilometers (over 13 square miles).
In Uigur language, Takla Makan means you can get into it but can never get out and the desert has another name the Sea of Death. The desert is regarded as being very powerful among the people; no wonder the name connotes fear. But there was an interesting legend about the origin of the desert. It was said that there was a Supernatural Being, who saw the hardship being faced by the people in this area and thought that he could help them by using the two magic objects in his possession namely the golden axe and the golden key. He gave his golden axe to the Kazakh, so they split the mountain Altai and diverted water from the mountains to the fields. The Supernatural Being planned to give the golden key to the Uigur so that they could open the door of the treasure-house of the Tarim Basin, but unfortunately his youngest daughter lost the key. This angered him so much that he held her a captive in the Tarim Basin and thus the Takla Makan Desert was formed.
Continuous sand dunes in this large Takla Makan Desert are usually over 100 meters high (over 109 yards) and some are even higher than 300 meters (about 328 yards). Because of the wind, the sand dunes are always moving forward and statistics suggests that each year they move about 150 meters (about 164 yards), which seriously threatens the existence of oasis and the survival of the local populace.
