Chinese Dead Sea—Lop Nur

Lop Nur is a 3,006 square kilometers water area and it is named the second largest salt-water lake in China. It is a good habitat for birds and beasts and it is the origin of life on which the indigene of Lop Nur made a living.

In A.D.1888, the Russian came to the south of Lop Nur and investigated an oasis. They found trace of a group of broncos. The German had caught some broncos and the British had caught some camels. When Sino-Sweden alliance investigation team investigated in Lop Nur, they could go boating in the lake and there were many fishes in it.

Except the sand blown by wind, burning sun and white salt, the water of Lop Nur had disappeared by this time. There were no people living in the 20-thousand-s.q.km Lop Nur area. The large change caused the people’s attention and thought. As the flourishing two states of Lop Nur: Cheshi State and Kroraina (Loulan). They had been disappeared.

Vaporized Great Lake
Lop Nur is located in the northeast of Tarim Basin in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is a loblolly surrounded by Arjin Mountains, Taklimakan Desert and Kuruktag Mountains. It had been called Lop Nur since Yuan Dynasty. The word “Lop” was the ancient Uygur language, meant, “assembling water treasure place”; the word “Nur” was Mongolian, meant “lake”. So “Lop Nur” was the lake which assembled water.

In the remote geologic age, Lop Nur area was within the ancient Mediterranean Sea. At the late stage of Eocene, because of the exquisite change of lithosphere, Arjin Mountains rose and the primary sea became land. After the Pleistocene of the Quaternary period, the joint section between Arjin Mountains and Eastern Kunlun Mountains descended correspondingly and gradually became the rudiment of Lop Nur. Under the influence of Himalayan forming the mountains, Lop Nur continued to descend. At the same time, the Tarim Basin changed the central hypsography and inclined northeastwards. Lop Nur located in its eastern part became the lowest part and the center of creating the ice. Tarim River, Konqi River, Qarqan River and Milan River and other seasonal rivers, stemmed respectively from Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun Mountains and Arjin Mountains, continuously entered Lop Nur billabong and became the lake.

In the end of Tertiary and at the beginning of Quaternary Period, the large Lop Nur came into being about 2 million years ago.

The shape and acreage had changed three times from A.D.1st century to 3rd century, 8th century, and 13th century. Seeing from the whole Lop Nur, the location of the lake was to the south or to the north sometimes. It changed from north latitude 39°to 40°, or 40°to 41°. So the geographers called it “moving lake”. It was the first mysterious veil of Lop Nur, which scratched people 's head over.

In 1980’s, the scientists found that the Lop Nur Basin was shallow and the rate of flow directly affected the shape and acreage of the lake by drilling the bottom, remote sensing of satellite, remote infrared measure and GPS etc.

In history, the largest acreage of Lop Nur had ever been 5,350 s.q.km. At the end of Qing Dynasty, the length of Lop Nur was 80 or 90 li from east to west and its width was 2 or 3 li and 1 or 2 li only. It became a small lake.

In 1921, Tarim River changed its course and poured into Lop Nur. In 1950’s, the acreage of lake area came back to over 2 thousand s.q.km. Because of Tarim River and the lower reaches of Konqi River drying, Lop Nur gradually dried up in 1960’s. Lop Nur and the basin area had finally become the white salt land. In 1972, the last 450-s.q.km lake was vaporized by the burning sun.

Translated by Beijing Star-light Translation Center
Compiled by Historical Department of www.travel-silkroad.com
December 23rd, 2000