Lop Nur

Coordinates: 40°10′N 90°35′E

Lop Nur or Lop Nor (from a Mongolian name meaning

"Lop Lake", where "Lop" is a toponym of unknown
Lop Nur
origin[1]) is a former salt lake, now largely dried up,
located in the eastern fringe of the Tarim Basin, between
the Taklamakan and Kumtag deserts in the southeastern
portion of the Xinjiang (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region). Administratively, the lake is in Lop Nur town
(Chinese: 罗布泊镇 ; pinyin: Luóbùpō zhèn), also known
as Luozhong ( 罗中 ; Luózhōng) of Ruoqiang County,
which in its turn is part of the Bayingolin Mongol
Autonomous Prefecture.
Satellite picture of the Basin of the former
The lake system into which the Tarim River and Shule
sea of Lop Nur; the concentric shorelines of
River empty is the last remnant of the historical post-
glacial Tarim Lake, which once covered more than the vanished lake are visible.
10,000 square kilometres (3,900  sq  mi) in the Tarim
Basin. Lop Nur is hydrologically endorheic – it is
landbound and there is no outlet. The lake measured
3,100 square kilometres (1,200  sq  mi) in 1928, but has
dried up due to construction of dams which blocked the
flow of water feeding into the lake system, and only
small seasonal lakes and marshes may form. The dried-up
Lop Nur Basin is covered with a salt crust ranging from
30 to 100 centimetres (12 to 39 in) in thickness.
Lop Nur
An area to the north west of Lop Nur has been used as a
nuclear testing site,[2] and since the discovery of potash at
the site in the mid-1990s, it is also the location of a large-
scale mining operation.[3] There are some restricted areas
Location of Lop Nur within Xinjiang
under military management and cultural relics protection
points in the region, which are not open to the public.[4]

History
From around 1800 BC until the 9th century the lake
Lop Nur
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 BC, an ancient civilisation along the Silk
Road, which skirted the lake-filled basin. Loulan became Lop Nur (China)
a client state of the Chinese empire in 55 BC, renamed
Chinese name
Shanshan. Faxian went by the Lop Desert on his way to
the Indus valley (395–414),[5] followed by later Chinese Traditional Chinese 羅布泊
pilgrims. Marco Polo in his travels passed through the
Lop Desert.[6] In the 19th century and early 20th century,
Simplified Chinese 罗布泊
Transcriptions
the explorers Ferdinand von Richthofen, Nikolai
Przhevalsky, Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein visited and Standard Mandarin
studied the area.[7] It is also likely that Swedish soldier Hanyu Pinyin Luóbù Pō
Johan Gustaf Renat had visited the area when he was
Wade–Giles Lo2-pu4 P'o1
helping the Zunghars to produce maps over the area in
the eighteenth century.[8] IPA [lwǒpû pʰwó]
Alternative Chinese name
The lake was given various names in ancient Chinese
texts.[9] In Shiji it was called Yan Ze ( 鹽澤 , literally Salt
Traditional Chinese 羅布淖爾
Marsh), indicating its saline nature, near which was Simplified Chinese 罗布淖尔
located the ancient Loulan Kingdom.[10] In Hanshu it
was called Puchang Hai ( 蒲昌海 , literally Sea of
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Abundant Reed) and was given a dimension of 300 to
400 li (roughly 120–160  km) in length and breadth,[11] Hanyu Pinyin Luóbù Nào'ěr
indicating it was once a lake of great size. These early Wade–Giles Lo2-pu4 Nao4-'erh3
texts also mentioned the belief, mistaken as it turns out, IPA [lwǒpû nâʊàɚ]
that the lake joins the Yellow River at Jishi through an
underground channel as the source of the river.[11][12] Mongolian name
Mongolian Cyrillic ᠯᠣᠪ ᠨᠠᠭᠤᠷ
The lake was referred to as the "Wandering Lake" in the Лоб Нуур
early 20th century due to the Tarim River changing its
course, causing its terminal lake to alter its location Uyghur name
between the Lop Nur dried basin, the Kara-Koshun dried Uyghur ‫لوپنۇر‬‎
basin and the Taitema Lake basin. [13] This shift of the Transcriptions
terminal lake caused some confusion amongst the early
explorers as to the exact location of Lop Nur. Imperial Latin Yëziqi Lopnur
maps from the Qing dynasty showed Lop Nur to be Yengi Yeziⱪ Lopnur
located in similar position to the present Lop Nur dried Siril Yëziqi Лопнур
basin, but the Russian geographer Nikolay Przhevalsky
instead found the terminal lake at Kara-Koshun in 1867. Sven Hedin visited the area in 1900–1901 and
suggested that the Tarim river periodically changed its course to and from between its southbound and
northbound direction, resulting in a shift in the position of the terminal lake. The change in the course of the
river, which resulted in Lop Nur drying up, was also suggested by Hedin as the reason why ancient
settlements such as Loulan had perished.[14]

In 1921, due to human intervention, the terminal lake shifted its position back to Lop Nur. The lake
measured 2400  km2 in area in 1930–1931. In 1934, Sven Hedin[15] went down the new Kuruk Darya
("Dry River") in a canoe. He found the delta to be a maze of channels and the new lake so shallow that it
was difficult to navigate even in a canoe. He had previously walked the dry Kuruk Darya in a caravan in
1900.

In 1952 the terminal lake then shifted to Taitema Lake when the Tarim River and Konque River were
separated through human intervention, and Lop Nur dried out again by 1964. In 1972, the Daxihaizi
Reservoir was built at Tikanlik, water supply to the lake was cut off, and all the lakes for the most part then
dried out, with only small seasonal lakes forming in local depressions in Taitema.[13] The loss of water to
the lower Tarim River Valley also led to the deterioration and loss of poplar forests and tamarix shrubs that
used to be extensively distributed along the lower
Tarim River Valley forming the so-called "Green
Corridor". In 2000, in an effort to prevent further
deterioration of the ecosystem, water was diverted
from Lake Bosten in an attempt to fill the Taitema
Lake.[16] The Taitema Lake however had shifted
30 to 40 kilometres (19 to 25  mi) westwards
during the past 40 years due in part to the spread
of the desert.[17] Another cause of the
destabilization of the desert has been the cutting
of poplars and willows for firewood; in response,
a restoration project to reclaim the poplar forests
was initiated.[18][19] Map of Lop Nur by Folke Bergman, 1935. Kara-Koshun
where the terminal lake was found in 1867 is located to
The Kara-Koshun dried basin may be considered the south-west of Lop Nor, and the lake had shifted
part of the greater Lop Nur.[13] back to Lop Nor by the time this map was drawn.
Taitema Lake was a smaller transit lake and located to
On 17 June 1980, Chinese scientist Peng Jiamu the west of Kara-Koshun.
disappeared while walking into Lop Nur in search
of water. His body was never found, and his
disappearance remains a mystery. On 3 June 1996, the Chinese explorer Yu Chunshun died while trying to
walk across Lop Nur.[20]

Nuclear weapons test base

China established the Lop Nur Nuclear Test Base on 16 October

1959 with Soviet assistance in selection of the site, with its
headquarters at Malan (马兰
[2]
, Mǎlán), about 125 kilometres (78 mi)
northwest of Qinggir. The first Chinese nuclear bomb test,
codenamed "Project 596", occurred at Lop Nur on 16 October
1964. China detonated its first hydrogen bomb on 17 June 1967.
Until 1996, 45 nuclear tests were conducted. These nuclear tests
were conducted by dropping bombs from aircraft and towers,
launching missiles, detonating weapons underground and in the
atmosphere.[21]

In 2009, Jun Takada, a Japanese scientist known for prominently

opposing the tests as "the Devil's conduct", published the results of
his computer simulation which suggests – based on deaths from
Soviet tests – that 190,000 people could have died in China from
nuclear-related illnesses.[22] Enver Tohti, an exiled pro-Uyghur
independence activist, claimed that cancer rates in the province of Mushroom cloud of the first Chinese
Xinjiang were 30 to 35% higher than the national average. [23] On nuclear weapon test, Project 596, at
29 July 1996, China conducted its 45th and final nuclear test at Lop Lop Nur in 1964.
Nor, and issued a formal moratorium on nuclear testing the
following day, although further subcritical tests were suspected.[24]
In 2012, China announced plans to spend US$1 million to clean up the Malan nuclear base in Lop Nor to
create a red tourism site.[25]
Lop Nur is home to the wild Bactrian camel, which is a separate species from the Bactrian camel. The
camels have continued to breed naturally despite the nuclear testing. China signed the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996 but did not ratify it.[26] Subsequently, the camels were classified as an
endangered species on the IUCN Red List.[27] Since the cessation of nuclear testing at Lop Nur, human
incursions into the area have caused a decline in the camel population.[27][28][29] Wild Bactrian camels
have been classified as critically endangered since 2002[27] and approximately half of the 1400 remaining
wild Bactrian camels live on the former Lop Nur test base, which has been designated the Lop Nur Wild
Camel National Nature Reserve.

Transportation
A highway from Hami to Lop Nur (Xinjiang Provincial Highway 235) was completed in 2006.[30]

The Hami–Lop Nur Railway, which runs 374.83 kilometres (232.91  mi) north to Hami, along the same
route, opened to freight operations in November 2012. The railway is used to transport potassium-rich salt
mined at the lake to the Lanzhou–Xinjiang railway.[30]

Archaeological sites
Given the extreme dryness and resulting thin population, remains of
some buildings survived for a significant period of time. When
ancient graves, some a few thousand years old, were opened the
bodies were often found to be mummified and grave goods well
preserved. The earliest sites are associated with an ancient people
of Indo European origin.

Loulan

Loulan or Kroran was an ancient kingdom based around an

important oasis city already known in the 2nd century BCE on the
north-eastern edge of the Lop Desert. It was renamed Shanshan
after Chinese took control of the kingdom in 1st century BCE. It
was abandoned some time in the seventh century. Its location was
discovered by Sven Hedin in 1899, who excavated some houses
and found a wooden Kharosthi tablet and many Chinese
manuscripts from the Jin dynasty (266–420).[14] Aurel Stein also Mask from second millennium BCE
excavated at the site in the beginning of the 20th century, while
Chinese archaeologists explored the area in the latter part of the
20th century. A mummy called the Beauty of Loulan was found at a cemetery site on the bank of Töwän
River.

Xiaohe Cemetery

The Xiaohe Cemetery is located to the west of Lop Nur. This Bronze Age burial site is an oblong sand
dune, from which more than thirty well preserved mummies have been excavated. The entire Xiaohe
Cemetery contains about 330 tombs, about 160 of which have been violated by grave robbers.[31]
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 body of a young
woman.[32]

Qäwrighul

In 1979, some of the earliest of the Tarim mummies were discovered in burial sites at Qäwrighul
(Gumugou), which is located to the west of Lop Nur, on the Könchi (Kongque) river. Forty-two graves,
most of which dated from 2100 to 1500 BC, were found. There were two types of tomb at the site,
belonging to two different time periods. The first type of burial featured shaft pit graves, some of which had
poles at either end to mark east and west. Bodies were found extended, usually facing east, and sometimes
were wrapped in wool weavings and wearing felt hats. Artifacts found included basketry, wheat grains,
cattle and sheep/goat horns, bird bone necklaces and bracelets, nephrite beads, and fragments of copper (or
bronze), although no pottery was discovered.

The second type of burial, from a later period, also consisted of shaft pit graves, surrounded by seven
concentric circles of poles. Six male graves were found, in which the bodies were extended on their backs,
and facing towards the east. Few artifacts were found, except for some traces of copper, or bronze.[33]

Miran

Miran is located to the south-west of Lop Nur. Buddhist monasteries were excavated here, and murals and
sculptures showed artistic influences from India and Central Asia, with some showing influences from as
far as Rome.

See also
Lop Desert
Tarim Basin
Tarim mummies
Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
Aral Sea
Ruoqiang Town
Charklik
List of nuclear weapons tests of China

References
1. Barber, Elizabeth (2000). The Mummies of Urümchi. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 125. "Two
groups have laid claim to nor, the second half of Lop Nor. Nor is Mongol for 'lake' and occurs
as part of many lake names in Xinjiang and other parts of Central Asia, while nur is Uyghur
for 'bright' (as in the white of the salt flats). Mongol probably wins this one. But lop is opaque
in both languages and in Chinese too, a fact suggesting that the name goes back to a time
before Turks, Mongols, or Chinese had entered the territory."
 2. "Lop Nor Nuclear Weapons Test Base" (http://www.nti.org/facilities/710/). nti. Retrieved
3 August 2007.
3. "Lop Nur, Xinjiang, China" (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=51039).
Earth Observatory. 19 June 2011. This article incorporates text from this source, which is
in the public domain.
4.三问哈罗铁路 (http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/s/blog_758fbe910101dv1z.html). Sina Weibo.
《新疆哈密广播电视报》 . 6 December 2012.
5. Fa-hsien; Legge, James (1886). A record of Buddhistic kingdoms; being an account by the
Chinese monk Fâ-Hien of his travels in India and Ceylon, A.D. 399-414, in search of the
Buddhist books of discipline. Translated and annotated with a Corean recension of the
Chinese text (http://archive.org/details/recordofbuddhist00fahsuoft). Robarts – University of
Toronto. Oxford Clarendon Press.
6. Dent, J. M. (1908), "Chapter 36: Of the Town of Lop Of the Desert in its Vicinity – And of the
strange Noises heard by those who pass over the latter" (https://archive.org/stream/marcopol
o00polouoft#page/98/mode/2up), The travels of Marco Polo the Venetian, pp. 99–101
7. "The Wandering Lake" (https://web.archive.org/web/20020416171410/http://earthobservator
y.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=6762). NASA. Archived from the
original (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=676
2) on 16 April 2002. Retrieved 3 August 2007. This article incorporates text from this
source, which is in the public domain.
8. Strindberg, August. "En svensk karta över Lop-nor och Tarimbäckenet" (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20070928081609/http://www.strindbergsmuseet.se/verken/Tal/fejd6.html) (in
Swedish). Archived from the original (http://www.strindbergsmuseet.se/verken/Tal/fejd6.html)
on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2007.
9. Zizhi Tongjian (https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%B3%87%E6%B2%BB%E9%80%9A%E
9%91%91/%E5%8D%B7019) Original text: 蒲昌海，一名泑澤，亦名鹽澤，亦名輔日海，亦
名穿蘭，亦名臨海，在沙州西南。 Translation; Puchang Hai, another name is You Ze, also
called Yan ze, Furi Hai, Chuan Lan, and Lin Hai. It is located to the south-west of Shazhou
(Dunhuang).
10. Shiji (https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%8F%B2%E8%A8%98/%E5%8D%B7123) Original
而樓蘭、姑師邑有城郭，臨鹽澤。
text: Translation: The cities of Loulan and Gushi have
walls; they lie near to Yan Ze.
11. Hanshu (https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%BC%A2%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B7096%E
蒲昌海，一名鹽澤者也，去玉門、陽關三百餘里，廣袤三四百里。
4%B8%8A) Original text:
其水亭居，冬夏不增減，皆以為潛行地下，南出於積石，為中國河雲 . Translation: Puchang
Hai, also named Yan Ze, lies over 300 li from the Yumen and Yangguan Pass, and is 300 to
400 li in length and breadth. Its waters are stagnant, and do not increase or decrease during
the winter or summer. It is generally believed that the water flows hidden underground,
emerges south at Jishi, and becomes the Chinese River (meaning Yellow River).
12. Lou Yulie, ed. (17 September 2015). Buddhism (https://books.google.com/books?id=jaOXCg
AAQBAJ&pg=PA270). Brill. p. 270. ISBN 9789047427971.
13. Zhao Songqiao and Xia Xuncheng (1984). "Evolution of the Lop Desert and the Lop Nor".
The Geographical Journal. 150 (3): 311–321. doi:10.2307/634326 (https://doi.org/10.2307%
2F634326). JSTOR 634326 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/634326).
14. Makiko Onishi and Asanobu Kitamoto. "Hedin, the Man Who Solved the Mystery of the
Wandering Lake: Lop Nor and Lou-lan" (http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/rarebook/06/index.html.en). Digital
Silk Road.
15. Sven Hedin, The Wandering lake, 1940. The river was also called the Kum Darya (Sand
River). The Gizi map of Xinjiang calls it the Konche, which is probably a mistake.
16. Liang Chao (13 April 2004). "Quenching thirst in Tarim Basin" (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0120510121711/http://chinapage.com/river/tarim/news2004.html). China Daily. Archived
from the original (http://www.chinapage.com/river/tarim/news2004.html) on 10 May 2012.
17. "Desert Intrudes upon Tarim Lake" (http://www.china.org.cn/english/environment/114336.ht
m). china.org.cn. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
18. "Tarim River Ecological Protection Suggested" (http://www.china.org.cn/english/2005/Mar/12
1947.htm). china.org.cn. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
19. "China Creates 'Man-made Oasis' Along Longest Inland River" (http://en.chinagate.cn/news/
2007-09/15/content_8888776.htm). China DevelopmentGateway. Xinhua News Agency. 15
September 2007.
20. "Found Dead – Yu Chunshun, 48, Intrepid Chinese explorer" (http://www.asiaweek.com/asia
week/96/0705/feat12.html). asiaweek.com. Retrieved 18 September 2007.
21. Burrows, Andrew S.; Fieldhouse, Richard (1993). Nuclear Weapons Databook. Boulder:
Westview Press. p. 380.
22. Subhabrata Das (20 April 2009). "China's nuclear tests allegedly caused 190000 deaths" (ht
tp://digitaljournal.com/article/271274). Digital Journal.
23. Zeeya Merali (8 July 2009). "Did China's Nuclear Tests Kill Thousands and Doom Future
Generations?" (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-chinas-nuclear-tests/).
Scientific American. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
24. Jeffrey Lewis (3 April 2009). "Subcritical Testing at Lop Nor" (https://web.archive.org/web/20
121031150630/http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/2239/subcritical-testing-at-lop-no
r). Arms Control Wonk. Archived from the original (http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/
2239/subcritical-testing-at-lop-nor) on 31 October 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
25. "China to open ex-atomic site to tourists" (http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Technology/20
12/10/17/China-to-open-ex-atomic-site-to-tourists/UPI-85691350470700/). Beijing: United
Press International. 17 October 2012. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
26. Borger, Julian (16 April 2020). "China may have conducted low-level nuclear test, US report
claims" (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/16/china-may-have-conducted-low-lev
el-nuclear-test-us-report-claims). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 (https://www.worldcat.org/i
ssn/0261-3077). Retrieved 23 April 2020.
27. Hare, J. (2008). "Camelus ferus" (https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/63543/12689285).
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2008.
doi:10.2305/iucn.uk.2008.rlts.t63543a12689285.en (https://doi.org/10.2305%2Fiucn.uk.200
8.rlts.t63543a12689285.en).
28. " 'New' camel lives on salty water" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1156212.stm).
BBC News. 6 February 2001.
29. "Wild Camel" (http://www.wildcamels.com/). Wild Camel Protection Foundation.
30. China starts building railway into "sea of death" (http://english.gov.cn/2010-03/04/content_15
47778.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120229091955/http://english.gov.cn/20
10-03/04/content_1547778.htm) 2012-02-29 at the Wayback Machine, gov.cn, Thursday, 4
March 2010
31. "Burial Site from the Bronze Age, Lop Nur, Xinjiang" (http://www.china.org.cn/english/feature
s/Archaeology/149496.htm#2). www.china.org.cn. Retrieved 18 September 2007.
32. "Silk Road Documentary Unearths Latest Findings" (http://www.china.org.cn/english/feature
s/Archaeology/162045.htm). china.org.cn. Retrieved 18 September 2007.
33. Kwang-tzuu Chen and Fredrik T. Hiebert (1995). "The Late Prehistory of Xinjiang in Relation
to Its Neighbors". Journal of World Prehistory 9 (2): 243–300.
External links
Map of the Lop Nur nuclear test facility (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/facility/lop_nor.g
if)
Lop Nor Nuclear Weapons Test Base (http://www.nti.org/db/China/lopnur.htm)
DF-31 Tested on 10 June 1994 (https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/df-31/)
Lop Desert (https://web.archive.org/web/20071201164317/http://www.travel-silkroad.com/en
glish/dongfanwenming/history/lbbzm/lbb2.htm)
Surveying the Lop Nor (https://books.google.com/books?id=p0kEAAAAYAAJ&dq=lop+deser
t&pg=PA153)
Bealby, John Thomas (1911). "Lop-nor"  (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C
3%A6dia_Britannica/Lop-nor). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). p. 991.
Salt Fields in Former “Wandering” Lake Lop Nur, China - May 13th, 2009 - Earth Snapshot
(http://www.eosnap.com/?p=6534) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20200607022229/
http://www.eosnap.com/image-of-the-day/salt-fields-in-former-wandering-lake-lop-nur-china/)
7 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine
Downloadable article: "Evidence that a West-East admixed population lived in the Tarim
Basin as early as the early Bronze Age" Li et al. BMC Biology 2010, 8:15. [1] (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20110427172440/http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1741-7007-8-15.p
df)

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