Photos of Lop Nur

Lop Nur is 780 meters above sea level and covers an area of about 3,000 square kilometers. It is located at the center of the ancient Silk Road in the east of the Tarim Basin. In the middle and late 20th century, due to the reduction of the flow of the Tarim River, the surrounding desertification was serious and rapidly degraded until it completely dried up in the late 1970s. Lop Nur, known as the "ear of the earth", was born at the end of the Tertiary and the beginning of the Quaternary, 18 million years ago. As early as the Han Dynasty, Lop Nur "is three hundred miles wide, with its water pavilions, which do not increase or decrease in winter and summer". There used to be a large-scale ancient Loulan kingdom here. It was founded before 176 BC and died in 630 AD, with a history of more than 800 years. Until later, it quietly withdrew from the stage of history, and the misty Lop Nur also turned into a dry swamp of salt. After Lop Nur dries up, the surrounding environment undergoes great changes, all herbs die, and the poplar trees, the sand guards, die in pieces. The desert advances to Lop Nur at a speed of 3-5 meters per year, and soon integrates with the vast Taklimakan Desert. Lop Nur has since become a place where nothing grows, a veritable "sea of death".