The Alashan plateau extends from northern Tibet into the Gobi desert, most of it lying in Inner Mongolia, which these days is a part of China. The Alashan is an arid region of low ridges separated by valleys and is surrounded by mountains which contribute to the climatic conditions found there. In the southern Alashan the landscape is sandy, in the north rocky and bare. There are several rivers which flow through the Alashan, the Dong He, the Xi He, and the Huang He (Yellow), and it does rain in the region, though rarely over 150 mm per year. But when it does rain, parts of the Alashan become green for a short season since the soil is such that it can retain the water to produce an amazing variety of vegetation. Springs flow underground from the mountains to the west to create oases in the desert. Away from the rivers and springs, freshwater pools form, only to become brackish, as they dry up and leach the salts from the earth. It can get terribly cold in the Alashan in the winter, and in the summer, equally as hot. Still, life thrives. In the Great Gobi Protected Area in the northern Alashan, there are over four hundred species of plants, along with fifty species of mammals, fifteen of reptiles and amphibians, and over one hundred and fifty different birds.

Khara Khoto
The ruins of Khara Khoto, the Black City, are located in the northwestern part of the Alashan. This city was a busy Tangut trading center during the eleventh century. It was Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov, a Russian explorer, who discovered the ruins of Khara Khoto during his expeditions from 1901–1909, along with over two thousand books written in the Tangut language. The city walls, which are now half buried under the drifting sands of the Gobi, were two feet thick and thirty feet high, and about a quarter of a mile to each side. Ruins of mud buildings have been found, along with huge granite millstones.

In 1227, Genghis Khan captured the fortress city, but it continued in its importance as a trading hub until 1472, when the last Mongol king, Khara Bator, found his city surrounded by the Chinese armies of the Ming, and settled in for a seige. But the Ming armies understood that the water source for Khara Khoto was the Black River which ran just outside its walls, and blocked its flow. Once Khara Bator realized what his enemies had done and that he was ultimately defeated, he killed his family and then himself. His still loyal soldiers then waited for the attack from the Ming and in their weakened state were easily overcome. The Ming armies slaughtered the remaining inhabitants of Khara Khoto and left their bones unburied as they sacked and destroyed the city.

Today there are stories of the ghosts of these same soldiers still haunting their ruined city. At night they light fires which burn ten feet into the sky, though there is no fuel at hand. There is a caretaker who lives on the site who tells that he followed a strange light one night which led him far into the desert and then went out. When he realized he was lost and cried out for help, the light returned to lead him back to his camp.

Bayan Zag
Bayan Zag is Mongolian for "rich in saxuals", which describes a feature of this region. The saxual tree, a member of the amaranthaceae family, can range in size from a large shrub to a small tree and often occurs in forest like groups throughout central Asia. This tree survives its extreme living conditions because its thick spongy bark holds water. In some parts of the Gobi, the saxual is the only tree to be found and is not only an important source of water for wildlife and travelers, but it is also used as fuel by the inhabitants. The roots of the saxual host a parasitic plant which is sometimes called the ginseng of the desert and is highly valued in Chinese medicine.

The Flaming Cliffs, pictured at the top of this page, were created by erosion and are located in the south of the Alashan. The rock formations get their name from their red-orange color, which is particularly brilliant at sunrise and sunset. It is among these rocks that Roy Chapman Andrews found the first dinosaur eggs in 1923, along with numerous dinosaur skeletons from the Cretaceous Period. Later explorations produced evidence of human habitation going back to the Stone Age.

Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park
This park in the southern Gobi was established in 1993 and is the largest preserve in Mongolia, encompassing some 27,000 square kilometers. The park is home to several rare species of plants and animals, including the snow leopard. Its name comes from three subranges of Gurvansaikhan Mountains to the east of the park, known as the Three Beauties. The story goes that there was once a rich man with three beautiful daughters who all fell in love with three poor men. Daddy didn't like that and refused to permit them to marry. The three girls ran off into the desert in despair, and there they are today.

The Singing Sands
The Duut Manhan, or the Singing Sands, are the world's largest sand dunes, and the largest of these is Khongoryn Els. The name comes from the sound of the wind moving the masses of sand which has been compared to that of an airplane from before the age of jets. Read a scientific explanation for the singing sounds.

The dunes occupy an area over 100 km long and up to 20 km wide and the highest of the dunes reaches over 30 km. They have been built over eons from the blowing of the coarse grains of sand in the region which enable pockets of water to become trapped within them. Over time, plants establish themselves and their roots hold the sand particles together. As time goes by, more sand covers the plants and the cycle continues, each layer of plant life and sand serving to stablilize and enlarge the dunes. The dunes change colors with the progress of the sun throughout the day, turning from rose to yellow to silver. Despite the barren appearance of the dunes, the region is home to a number of reptiles and insects. The Hongoriin Gol River flows along the northern edge of the dunes and an oasis has developed along one of its banks which supports vegetation and other wildlife.

Stories abound about this eerie place, and travelers have long been warned that the singing of the dunes will distract and mislead them, causing them to become forever lost in the desert. Marco Polo attributed the sound to evil desert spirits and described what could happen to the unwary:

When a man is riding by night through this desert and something happens to make him loiter and lose touch with his companions, by dropping asleep or for some other reason, and afterwards he wants to rejoin them, then he hears spirits talking in such a way that they seem to be his companions. Sometimes, indeed, they will even hail him by name. Often these voices make him stray from the path, so that he never finds it again. And in this way, many travellers have been lost and have perished. And sometimes in the night they are conscious of a noise like the clatter of a great cavalcade of riders away from the road; and believing that these are some of their own company, they go where they hear the noicse and, when day breaks, find they are victims of an illusion and in an awkward plight. And there are some who, in crossing this desert, have seen a host of men coming towards them an, suspecting that they were robbers, have taken flight; so, having left the beaten track and not knowing how to return to it, they have gone hopelessly astray. Yes, and even by daylight men hear these spirit voices, and often you fancy you are listening to the strains of many instruments, especially drums, and the clash of arms...And round the necks of all their beasts they fasten little bells, so that by listening to the sound they may prevent them from straying off the path.

John Man relates the tale of Shugshnim, a long ago king who was a wise and generous ruler who established a fine city. In his day, the region was comprised of stones and fields, but no sand. Life was so good that gold fell from the sky and all his subjects were happy. But Shugshnim's son killed his father because he wanted to be king and the gods became angry. From then on, they sent sand from the sky instead of the gold and buried the great city.

This tale is intriguing for a couple of reasons. Throughout the Gobi are the remains of abandoned cities, walls, roads, barriers, indicating that the inhabitants were not all nomads in ancient times. Also, it is theorized that what killed the dinosaurs whose fossils are interred here was an extreme sandstorm that swept in suddenly, which explains the finds of females sitting on their eggs and the pair of huge beasts still locked in a battle when they died, buried in an avalanche of sand.

View Dune Photos


Sources: