Plateau desert wonders

Plateau desert wonders

Located in the southern part of Ruoqiang County, Xinjiang, the Aerjin Mountain Nature Reserve is a unique desert spectacle, especially the Kumukuli desert in the northeast and the crescent sand dune in the east of whale lake. The Kumukuli desert covers an area of 2556 square kilometers, is irregular rectangular, lying in the southern foot of Qimantage mountain, with an altitude of 3916-4706 meters, and is mainly composed of tall sand dunes The average thickness of the desert is 300 meters, and the maximum thickness is more than 500 meters. The crescent shaped sand dune of Jisha beach is located to the east of whale lake and to the north of the towering snow mountain, with an elevation of 4800-5000 meters and an area of 120 square kilometers. It is about 2000 meters higher than the Atacama Desert in South America (about 3000 meters above sea level), which is known as the world's first elevation desert.

Undoubtedly, it is the highest altitude desert in the world. The desert buried modern river bed and glacial deposits, which are active and still accumulating up to now. The bottom of the dune is rich in diving. According to the crescent shaped dunes, water converges into crescent shaped water pool, which is called "crescent spring". In summer, it forms a small lake, which is blue and clear; in winter, it freezes and freezes, which is as white as the silver moon. It can compete with the crescent spring in Mingsha mountain of Dunhuang.

Address: Altun Mountain Nature Reserve in the south of Ruoqiang County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Longitude: 89.071053948723

Latitude: 36.589724504188

Chinese PinYin : Gao Yuan Sha Mo Qi Guan