Gem-filled rivers and striped mountain ridges form a giant ‘Y’ in China’s revitalized desert — Earth seen from space

This striking satellite photo shows a giant letter Y lurking in the heart of China’s recently transformed desert. This unusual shape is made up of rocky ridges and meandering rivers encrusted with jewels, and is also home to an important 8th-century fort.

The intersecting lines are located in the center of the Taklamakan Desert (Taklamakan, also spelled Taklamakan), which covers an area of ​​130,000 square miles (337,000 square kilometers) in the Tarim Basin in China’s Xinjiang region.

Because of their high temperatures and dryness, deserts were previously thought to be “biological vacuums,” or almost completely devoid of life. But an ecological engineering project known as the Great Green Wall has planted more than 66 billion trees along the desert’s northern edge since 1974, turning the desert into a carbon sink that absorbs vast amounts of carbon dioxide, a recent study found.

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The Y-shape consists of two parts. The Hotan River stretches approximately 180 miles (290 kilometers) across the desert from south to north. According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, Marzatag is a “wall-like” mountain ridge that rises about 600 feet (180 meters) above the surrounding sand and extends 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest.

The Hotan River (also known as the Hotan River) is fed by glacial meltwater from the Kunlun Mountains south of Taklamakan, and its green appearance is due to the vegetation that grows between its braided streams. Its waters are rich in white and green nephrite, a valuable type of jade.

Marztag Mountain is divided into seams of reddish iron-rich rock and paler sandstone, earning it the name Hongbai Mountain, which means “red and white mountain” in Chinese. It also acts as a natural barrier to sand blowing against the rock face, creating a sea of ​​undulating crescent-shaped “Balkan” dunes along its northern edge.

Home to drinking water, precious gemstones, and shelter from the elements, it was an important stop on the Silk Road, a vast network of trade routes that ran from east to west across Asia from the 2nd to the 15th centuries.

At the point where the two terrains meet are the ruins of a military fortress, probably dating from the 8th century.

a crumbling fortress

The fortress, known as Mazar Tagh, was built on a hill at the intersection of the Y by the Tibetan Empire, which existed from 618 to 842 AD and covered much of the Tibetan Plateau, including parts of modern-day China, India, and Afghanistan.

According to the International Dunhuang Program, the site was first excavated in 1907 by Hungarian-British archaeologist Aurel Stein, who discovered more than 1,500 written fragments transcribed on both wood and paper. These documents are written in multiple languages, including Khotan, Uighur, and Sogdian, and record the soldiers’ experiences.

Other artefacts, including arrows, sheaths, shoes, dice, combs and pens, were also discovered at the site and are now housed in the British Museum. But perhaps the most impressive discovery was a portrait of a “beggar monk” painted on a wooden board by a soldier. The monk was probably on a pilgrimage to an ancient Buddhist temple built on the same hill.

Today, there is also an Islamic shrine on this hill.