Lop Desert - Lop Nor

Lop Nor

There are numerous indications that suggest the presence of an extensive lake in this region, but which is now completely desiccated. These indications include salt-stained depressions of a lacustrine appearance; traces of former lacustrine shorelines, more or less parallel and concentric; the presence in places of vast quantities of fresh water mollusc shells (species of Lymnaea and Planorbis); the existence of belts of dead poplars; patches of dead tamarisks and extensive beds of withered reeds, all of these are always on top of the yardangs, never in the wind etched furrows.

In Hanshu, where it was called Puchang Hai (蒲昌海), the lake was suggested to be a great size, with a dimension of 300 to 400 li (roughly 120-160 km) in length and breadth. It was also called Yan Ze (鹽澤) in Shiji, which means "salt marsh", indicating that the lake was salty. The lake had already shrunk considerably by the Qing Dynasty, and it also shifted its location to Kara-Koshun by the later half of the nineteenth century, then back again to Lop Nor in 1921 through human intervention.

However, the building of dams by Chinese garrisons in the twentieth century have blocked the water from the rivers feeding in to Lop Nor and it is now primarily salt flats. The dried-up Lop Nur basin is covered with a salt crust from 30 cm to 1 m thick.