West China: Kunlun to Taklimakan

print size: 75 in x 30 in, 191 cm x 76 cm

file size: 186MB, 6011 x 14901

number of images: 3

center location: N 37.7, E 80.3

approximate scale: 1 to 223,000

ground cell: 28.50 m, long side: 425 km

The north edge of the Tibetan Plateau has a broad patch of gentle but very lofty mountain ridges called Guliya. It is upper left in the south-up composition, and from this area two rivers tumble northwestward through the steep valleys of the escarpment. They emerge onto the edge of the Taklimakan Desert in paired canyons above the oasis of Khotan, whose dark irrigated fields are in off-season fallow. The rivers flow into the desert separately, but then join and manage to cross the basin past a fine crest.