Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5.5. Mud-brick fort abandoned as a result of climatic desiccation some 2,000
years ago in Xinjiang Province, north-west China.
(Flint,
1971
, p. 19). The Dead Sea lakes have been studied in detail ever since (Enzel
et al.,
2006
).
5.4 The deserts of Asia
The first Western knowledge of the deserts of central Asia and north-west India arose
from the military campaigns of Alexander the Great in 330 BC, and it was followed
by more peaceful interactions involving trade between Rome and India three centuries
later and between China and Rome more than 100 years after that (around 100 AD).
The opening up of trade between China, India, central Asia and Europe involved
establishing trading posts and sporadic military garrisons. A number of these posts
were located along the northern and southern borders of the Taklamakan Desert in the
now virtually waterless Tarim Basin (
Figure 5.5
).
The ancient pluvial Lake Lop Nor, located between the Gobi Desert to the east and
the Taklamakan Desert to the west, once supported a flourishing garrison settlement
at Loulan. From 1899 to 1902, Sven Hedin discovered the beautifully carved wooden
remains of this abandoned outpost, together with documents, as did Aurel Stein a few
years later, during his travels in 1906-1908. These two explorers brought the story of
the former expansion and gradual shrinkage of Lop Nor soon after the third century to
