The Taklamakan Desert in western China was the Bermuda Triangle of the Silk Road. The word Taklamakan literally means– Once you go in, you don’t come out. It is still a wasteland. The military tests its nuclear weapons there and they just discovered huge deposits of oil underneath. For thousands of years, the oasis towns ringing the desert have witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations. They have been influenced by Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Indians, and Chinese. We visited one of them. Continue reading