| Lop Nur | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 羅布泊 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 罗布泊 | ||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 羅布淖爾 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 罗布淖尔 | ||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Mongolian name | |||||||||
| Mongolian | Lop Nuur | ||||||||
| Uyghur name | |||||||||
| Uyghur |
لوپنۇر
|
||||||||
Lop Lake or Lop Nur (from the Mongolian[1]) is a group of small, now seasonal salt lake sand marshes between the Taklamakan and Kuruktag deserts in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, southeastern portion of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China.
The lake system into which the Tarim River and Shule River empty is the last remnant of the historical post-glacial Tarim Lake, which once covered more than 10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi) in the Tarim Basin. Lop Nur is hydrologically endorheic—it is landbound and there is no outlet. Though it was determined to be a single salt lake by ancient Chinese geographers, the lake system has largely dried up from its 1928 measured area of 3,100 km2 (1,200 sq mi) and the desert has spread by windblown sandy loess. This has shifted the lake system 30 to 40 kilometres (19 to 25 mi) westwards during the past 40 years.[2] A partial cause for the destabilization of the desert has been the cutting of poplars and willows for firewood; in response, a reserve was established in 2003 to preserve 3,520 km2 (1,360 sq mi) of poplar.[3]
Contents |
From around 1800 BCE until the 9th century the lake 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. Former water resources of the Tarim River and Lop Nur nurtured the kingdom of Loulan since the second century BCE, an ancient 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. Marco Polo passed near the lake, and the famous explorers Ferdinand von Richthofen, Nikolai Przhevalsky, Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein visited and studied the area.[4] It is also likely that Swedish soldier Johan Gustaf Renate had visited the area when he was helping the Zunghars to produce maps over the area in the eighteenth century.[5]
On June 17, 1980, Chinese archeologist Peng Jiamu disappeared while walking into Lop Nur in search of water. His body was never found, and his disappearance continues to be one of the most mysterious events in the history of Chinese archeology. On June 13, 1996, the Chinese explorer Yu Chunshun died while trying to walk across Lop Nur.[6]
The first Chinese nuclear bomb test, codenamed "596", was tested at Lop Nur in 1964. The PRC detonated its first hydrogen bomb on June 17, 1967. Since 1964, the lake has been used as a nuclear test site. Until 1996, 45 nuclear tests were conducted.[7] The headquarters of the test base is at Malan, about 125 km (78 mi) northwest of Qinggir.[8]
In 2006, a highway from Hami to Lop Nur (Xinjiang Provincial Hwy 235) was completed. [9]
In 2010, construction started on a 370 km (230 mi) railway along the same route, which will facilitate taking the potassium-rich salt mined at the lake to the Lanxin Railway mainline.[9]
The rivers that feed the Lop Nur marshes include the Tarim River, Kongque River, Qiemo River and Kaidu River.
This bronze-age burial site is an oblong sand dune, from which more than thirty well preserved mummies, found in airtight ox-hide bags, have been excavated. The entire Xiaohe Tomb complex contains about 330 tombs, about 160 of which have been violated by grave robbers.[10] A local hunter guided the Swedish explorer and archeologist Folke Bergman to the site in 1934. An excavation project by the Xinjiang Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute began in October, 2003. A total of 167 tombs have been dug up since the end of 2002 and excavations have revealed hundreds of smaller tombs built in layers, as well as other precious artifacts. In 2006, a valuable archeological finding was uncovered: a boat-shaped coffin wrapped in ox hide, containing the mummified face of a young woman, smiling.[11]
