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100-603: The Lop Desert is on the whole flat, but with three slightly more depressed areas which might form lakes if filled with water - the Lop Nur dried basin, Kara-Koshun dried basin and the Taitema Lake basin. These formed, at one time or another, the terminal lakes of the Tarim -Konque- Qarqan river system. The Tarim River changes its course through time, and therefore the location of the terminal lake also changes, causing some confusion amongst

200-481: A stupa , and 19 dwellings built of poplar wood. He also found a wooden wheel from a horse-drawn cart (called an arabas ) as well as several hundred documents written on wood, paper and silk in the Kharosthi script. These provided information about the history of the city of Loulan , which had once been located on the shores of Lop Nur but had been abandoned around the year 330 CE because the lake had dried out, depriving

300-864: A Swedish legation to Iran which was to present the Shah of Iran with the insignia of the Order of the Seraphim . As part of the Swedish legation, he was at an audience of the shah Naser al-Din Shah Qajar in Tehran. He spoke with him and later accompanied him to the Elburz Mountain Range. On 11 July 1890, he and three others climbed Mount Damavand where he collected primary material for his dissertation. Starting in September he traveled on

400-893: A boat-shaped coffin wrapped in ox hide, containing the mummified body of a young woman. 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

500-666: A book about these travels entitled Through Persia, Mesopotamia and the Caucasus . From 1886 to 1888, Hedin studied under the geologist Waldemar Brøgger in Stockholm and Uppsala the subjects of geology, mineralogy , zoology and Latin . In December 1888, he became a Candidate in Philosophy . From October 1889 to March 1890 he studied in Berlin under Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen . On 12 May 1890, he accompanied as interpreter and vice-consul

600-404: A camel caravan and ascertained that at least one of the escorts who, according to Hedin, had died of thirst had survived, and that it is impossible for a camel caravan traveling in springtime on this route to carry enough drinking water for both camels and travelers. According to other sources, Hedin had neglected to completely fill the drinking water containers for his caravan at the beginning of

700-411: A distinctly defined laminae, three stories being sometimes superimposed one upon the other, while their vertical faces are abraded, and often undercut, by the wind. The formations themselves are separated by parallel gullies or wind furrows, 6 to 20 feet deep, all sculptured in the direction of the prevailing northeast to southwest wind. There is no drifting sand or sand dunes , except in the south towards

800-410: A doctorate, learning several languages and dialects, and undertaking two trips through Persia , he ignored the advice of Ferdinand von Richthofen to continue his geographic studies to acquaint himself with geographical research methodology; the result was that Hedin had to leave the evaluation of his expedition results later to other scientists. Between 1894 and 1908, in three daring expeditions through

900-468: 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 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

1000-537: A formal moratorium on nuclear testing the following day, although further subcritical tests were suspected. 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. In December 2023, a report emerged indicating that China was making preparations to resume nuclear tests in a remote desert. Satellite imagery provided evidence of these preparations, revealing

1100-481: A grand total of only eight months and collecting primary material for one-and-a-half days on the snow-clad peak of Mount Damavand . Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen not only encouraged Hedin to absolve cursory studies, but also to become thoroughly acquainted with all branches of geographic science and the methodologies of the salient research work, so that he could later work as an explorer. Hedin abstained from doing this with an explanation he supplied in old age: I

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1200-538: A history of China completed in 111), where it was called Puchang Hai (蒲昌海), the lake was suggested to be of a great size, with a dimension of 300 to 400 li , roughly 120–160 km (75–99 mi), 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 . It had shifted its location to Kara-Koshun by

1300-556: A journey through Asia and Europe between the late 1880s and the early 1900s. While traveling, Hedin visited Turkey , the Caucasus , Tehran , Iraq , lands of the Kyrgyz people and the Russian Far East , India , China and Japan . The posthumous publication of his Central Asia Atlas marked the conclusion of his life's work. At 15 years of age, Hedin witnessed the triumphal return of

1400-496: 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 (the Book of Han ,

1500-702: A less-than-successful lecture tour in 1923 through North America and Japan, he traveled on to Beijing to carry out an expedition to Chinese Turkestan (modern Xinjiang), but the region's unstable political situation thwarted this intention. He instead traveled through Mongolia by car and through Siberia aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway . With financial support from the governments of Sweden and Germany, he led, between 1927 and 1935, an international and interdisciplinary Sino-Swedish Expedition to carry out scientific investigations in Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan, with

1600-457: A member of two scientific academies, he had a voice in the selection of Nobel Prize winners for both science and literature. Hedin never married and had no children, rendering his family line now extinct. Hedin's expedition notes laid the foundations for a precise mapping of Central Asia. He was one of the first European scientific explorers to employ indigenous scientists and research assistants on his expeditions. Although primarily an explorer, he

1700-909: A stopover in Kashgar, Hedin visited the 1,500-year-old abandoned cities of Dandan Oilik and Kara Dung , which are located northeast of Khotan in the Taklamakan Desert. At the beginning of March, he discovered Lake Bosten , one of the largest inland bodies of water in Central Asia. He reported that this lake is supplied by a single mighty feeder stream, the Kaidu River . He mapped Lake Kara-Koshun and returned on 27 May to Khotan. On 29 June, he started out from there with his caravan across northern Tibet and China to Beijing, where he arrived on 2 March 1897. He returned to Stockholm via Mongolia and Russia. Another expedition in Central Asia followed in 1899–1902 through

1800-448: A support area with multiple buildings. What was once a modest site with only a few buildings had transformed into a modern and sophisticated complex, complete with security fences. One of the new structures was a bunker that was fortified with earthen berms and lightning arresters, indicating its suitability for handling high explosives. Tests on miniaturization of missiles and warheads can also be possibly carried out at this site. However,

1900-525: A war theater, resembled an invading army. However, the financing remained Hedin's private responsibility. Because of failing health, the civil war in Chinese Turkestan , and a long period of captivity, Hedin, by then 70 years of age, had a difficult time after the currency depreciation of the Great Depression raising the money required for the expedition, the logistics for assuring the supplying of

2000-680: Is a toponym of unknown origin ) is a now largely dried-up salt lake formerly located in the eastern fringe of the Tarim Basin in the southeastern portion of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region , northwestern China , between the Taklamakan and Kumtag deserts. 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

2100-600: Is also served by the Hotan–Ruoqiang railway , which loops around the south and west side of the Tarim Basin , part of the Taklimakan Desert railway loop, joined together with sections of the Golmud–Korla railway , Kashgar–Hotan railway , and Southern Xinjiang railway . Given the extreme dryness and resulting thin population, remains of some buildings survived for a significant period of time. When ancient graves, some

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2200-431: Is covered with a salt crust ranging from 30 to 100 cm (12 to 39 in) in thickness. An area to the northwest of Lop Nur has been used as a nuclear testing site . Since the discovery of potash at the site in the mid-1990s, it is also the location of a large-scale mining operation. There are some restricted areas under military management and cultural relics protection points in the region, which are not open to

2300-585: Is part of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture . The lake system, into which the Tarim River and Shule River drain from the west and east respectively, is the last remnant of the historical post-glacial Tarim Lake, which once covered more than 10,000 km (3,900 sq mi) in the Tarim Basin but had progressively shrunk throughout the Holocene due to rain shadowing by

2400-653: The Aegean Region . From the end of 1933 to 1934, Hedin led—on behalf of the Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing—a Chinese expedition to investigate irrigation measures and draw up plans and maps for the construction of two roads suitable for automobiles along the Silk Road from Beijing to Xinjiang. Following his plans, major irrigation facilities were constructed, settlements erected, and roads built on

2500-634: The Arctic explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld after his first navigation of the Northern Sea Route . From that moment on, young Sven aspired to become an explorer. His studies under the German geographer and China expert, Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen , awakened a love of Germany in Hedin and strengthened his resolve to undertake expeditions to Central Asia to explore the last uncharted areas of Asia. After obtaining

2600-623: The Empire of Japan . Because of political and social unrest in China , he had to abandon an expedition to Xinjiang . Instead, he traveled with Frans August Larson (called the "Duke of Mongolia") in November and December in a Dodge automobile from Peking through Mongolia via Ulan-Bator to Ulan-Ude , Russia and from there on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Moscow. Between 1927 and 1935, Hedin led an international Sino-Swedish Expedition which investigated

2700-558: The Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve . A highway from Hami to Lop Nur (Xinjiang Provincial Highway 235) was completed in 2006. 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 . It

2800-590: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ; the Sven Hedin Foundation established soon thereafter holds all the rights of ownership. Hedin died at Stockholm in 1952. The memorial service was attended by representatives of the Swedish royal household, the Swedish government, the Swedish Academy, and the diplomatic service. He is buried in the cemetery of Adolf Fredrik church in Stockholm. Sven Hedin

2900-912: The Silk Road via cities Mashhad , Ashgabat , Bukhara , Samarkand , Tashkent and Kashgar to the western outskirts of the Taklamakan Desert. On the trip home, he visited the grave of the Russian Asian scholar, Nikolai Przhevalsky in Karakol on the shore of Lake Issyk Kul . On 29 March 1891, he was back in Stockholm. He published the books King Oscar's Legation to the Shah of Persia in 1890 and Through Chorasan and Turkestan about this journey. On 27 April 1892, Hedin traveled to Berlin to continue his studies under Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen . Beginning of July he went to University of Halle-Wittenberg , Halle , attending lectures by Alfred Kirchhoff . Yet in

3000-515: The Soviet Union , brought him in dangerous proximity to representatives of National Socialism, who exploited him as an author. This destroyed his reputation and put him into social and scientific isolation. However, in correspondence and personal conversations with leading Nazis, his successful intercessions achieved the pardoning of ten people condemned to death and the release or survival of Jews who had been deported to Nazi concentration camps . At

3100-580: The Tibetan Plateau . Lop Nur is hydrologically endorheic , it is landbound and has no outlet, and has relied largely on meltwater runoffs from the Tianshan , Kunlun and the western Qilian Mountains . The lake measured 3,100 km (1,200 sq mi) in 1928, but has dried up due to construction of reservoirs which dammed the flow of water feeding into the lake, and only small seasonal lakes and salt marshes may form. The dried-up Lop Nur Basin

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3200-673: The meteorological , topographic and prehistoric situation in Mongolia , the Gobi Desert and Xinjiang . Hedin described it as a peripatetic university in which the participating scientists worked almost independently, while he—like a local manager—negotiated with local authorities, made decisions, organized whatever was necessary, raised funds and recorded the route followed. He gave archaeologists , astronomers , botanists , geographers , geologists, meteorologists and zoologists from Sweden, Germany and China an opportunity to participate in

3300-602: The "Wandering Lake" in the early 20th century due to the Tarim River changing its course, causing its terminal lake to alter its location between the Lop Nur dried basin, the Kara-Koshun dried basin and the Taitema Lake basin. This shift of the terminal lake caused some confusion amongst the early explorers as to the exact location of Lop Nur. Imperial maps from the Qing dynasty showed Lop Nur to be located in similar position to

3400-402: The "white spaces" in contemporary maps, providing valuable information. Hedin was honored in ceremonies in: Hedin was, and remained, a figure of the 19th century who clung to its visions and methods also in the 20th century. This prevented him from discerning the fundamental social and political upheavals of the 20th century and aligning his thinking and actions accordingly. Concerned about

3500-479: The 20th century. A mummy called the Beauty of Loulan was found at a cemetery site on the bank of Töwän River. 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. A local hunter guided

3600-580: The Bavarian State Collection of Paleontology and Geology of Munich University . These sedimentary rocks —such as breccia , conglomerate , limestone , and slate , as well as volcanic rock and granite —highlight the geological diversity of the regions visited by Hedin during this expedition. In 1923, Hedin traveled to Beijing via the United States —where he visited the Grand Canyon —and

3700-691: The Caspian Sea, riding through the Alborz Range to Tehran , Esfahan , Shiraz and the harbor city of Bushehr . From there he took a ship up the Tigris River to Baghdad (then in Ottoman Empire ), returning to Tehran via Kermanshah , and then travelling through the Caucasus and over the Black Sea to Constantinople . Hedin then returned to Sweden, arriving on 18 September 1886. In 1887, Hedin published

3800-626: The Chinese Foreign Ministry has dismissed the report and its "utterly irresponsible" claims. China has denied any nuclear testing plans on the site. 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. Subsequently,

3900-577: The Northwestern Province of China 1927–1933". A painting in the Beijing Palace Museum entitled Nomads in the Desert served as model for the series. Of the 25,000 sets, 4,000 were sold across the counter and 21,500 came into the possession of the expedition. Hedin used them to finance the expedition, selling them for a price of five dollars per set. The stamps were unwelcome at the time due to

4000-964: The Pamir Mountains. Several attempts to climb the 7,546 metres (24,757 ft) high Muztagata —called the Father of the Glaciers—in the Pamir Mountains were unsuccessful. He remained in Kashgar until April 1895 and then left on 10 April with three local escorts from the village of Merket to cross the Taklamakan Desert via Tusluk to the Khotan River . Since their water supply was insufficient, seven camels died of thirst, as did two of his escorts (according to Hedin's dramatized and probably inaccurate account). Bruno Baumann traveled on this route in April 2000 with

4100-546: The Silk Road from Beijing to Kashgar , which made it possible to completely bypass the rough terrain of Tarim Basin. One aspect of the geography of central Asia which intensively occupied Hedin for decades was what he called the "wandering lake" Lop Nur . In May 1934, he began a river expedition to this lake. For two months he navigated the Kaidu River and the Kum-Darja to Lop Nur, which had been filled with water since 1921. After

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4200-571: The Sino-Swedish Expedition Council, and drafted the contract), after which they were returned to China under the terms of the contract. Starting in 1937, the scientific material assembled during the expedition was published in over 50 volumes by Hedin and other expedition participants, thereby making it available for worldwide research on eastern Asia. When he ran out of money to pay printing costs, he pawned his extensive and valuable library, which filled several rooms, making possible

4300-521: 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:

4400-644: The Tarim Basin, Tibet and Kashmir to Calcutta. Hedin navigated the Yarkand , Tarim and Kaidu rivers and found the dry riverbed of the Kum-darja as well as the dried out lake bed of Lop Nur . Near Lop Nur, he discovered the ruins of the 340 by 310 metres (1,120 by 1,020 ft) former walled royal city and later Chinese garrison town of Loulan, containing the brick building of the Imperial Chinese Army commander,

4500-452: The Tarim River and deposits itself onto gigantic dunes that choke the eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert . The extreme weather and ever moving sand dunes have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. The esteemed biologist Peng Jiamu disappeared in the desert in 1980. Lop Nur Lop Nur or Lop Nor ( Oirat : ᠯᠣ᠊ᠫ ᠨᡇᡇᠷ , romanized:  Lob nuur , from an Oirat Mongolic name meaning "Lop Lake", where "Lop"

4600-514: The Tarim and Yanji basins in Xinjiang and the deposits of iron, manganese, oil, coal and gold discovered during the Sino-Swedish Expedition were opened up for mining. Among the discoveries of this expedition should also be counted the many Asian plants and animals unheard of until that date, as well as fossil remains of dinosaurs and other extinct animals. Many were named after Hedin, the species-level scientific classification being hedini . But one discovery remained unknown to Chinese researchers until

4700-411: The area. It is also likely that Swedish soldier Johan Gustaf Renat had visited the area when he was helping the Zunghars to produce maps over the area in the eighteenth century. The lake was given various names in ancient Chinese texts. In Shiji it was called Yan Ze (鹽澤, literally Salt Marsh), indicating its saline nature, near which was located the ancient Loulan Kingdom . In Hanshu it

4800-469: The arid Xinjiang region of China's far west, serves as an extensive military base. This location was selected for nuclear testing due to its desolate and isolated nature, devoid of any permanent inhabitants, though the broader Xinjiang region is home to the Uyghurs , a predominantly Muslim ethnic group that has historically faced widespread detentions and stringent security measures in Xinjiang conflict . The Uyghurs have persistently voiced concerns regarding

4900-407: The atmosphere frequently dropped to zero, with air temperature as high as 50 °C (122 °F). Annual evaporation was estimated in 1984 to be between 1,000 mm (39 in) and 1,500 mm (59 in) in 1984, meaning that a lake with about 2 m (6.6 ft) in water depth will dry out within less than two years if cut off entirely from its feeding source. In 2008 the annual evaporation

5000-490: The atmosphere. In 2009, Jun Takada, a Japanese scientist, 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. Enver Tohti, an exiled pro-Uyghur independence activist, claimed that cancer rates in the province of Xinjiang were 30 to 35% higher than the national average. On 29 July 1996, China conducted its 45th and final nuclear test at Lop Nor, and issued

5100-436: The balcony he had a wide view over Riddarfjärden Bay and Lake Mälaren to the island of Långholmen . In the entryway to the stairwell is to be found a decorative stucco relief map of Hedin's research area in Central Asia and a relief of the Lama temple, a copy of which he had brought to Chicago for the 1933 World's Fair . On 29 October 1952, Hedin's will granted the rights to his books and his extensive personal effects to

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5200-421: The camels were classified as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List . Since the cessation of nuclear testing at Lop Nur, human incursions into the area have caused a decline in the camel population. Wild Bactrian camels have been classified as critically endangered since 2002 and approximately half of the 1400 remaining wild Bactrian camels live on the former Lop Nur test base, which has been designated

5300-432: The desert. Poplars forests and tamarix shrubs used to be extensively distributed along the lower Tarim River Valley forming the so-called "Green Corridor", but as the lower Tarim River has been drying since 1972 due to the construction of dams, they have greatly deteriorated and some have disappeared. The Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve was created in 2001 to preserve wild Bactrian camels and other wildlife in

5400-469: The early explorers as to the exact location of Lop Nur, and the lake was thus referred to as the "Wandering Lake." In the past Lop Nur was a huge marsh in the eastern part of Xinjiang. Now the region is a broad, unbroken expanse of clay intermingled with sand . The clay, mostly of a yellow or yellow-grey color, is hard and thickly sprinkled with fine gravel . There are benches, flattened ridges and tabular masses of consolidated clay ( yardangs ) that are in

5500-401: The ecosystem, water was diverted from Lake Bosten in an attempt to fill the Taitema Lake. 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. 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

5600-518: The elements over his long career. His scientific documentation and popular travelogues, illustrated with his own photographs, watercolor paintings and drawings, his adventure stories for young readers and his lecture tours abroad made him world-famous. As a renowned expert on Turkestan and Tibet, he was able to obtain unrestricted access to European and Asian monarchs and politicians as well as to their geographical societies and scholarly associations. They all sought to purchase his exclusive knowledge about

5700-444: The end of the war, United States Army troops deliberately confiscated documents relating to Hedin's planned Central Asia Atlas . The U.S. Army Map Service later solicited Hedin's assistance and financed the printing and publication of his life's work, the Central Asia Atlas . Whoever compares this atlas with Adolf Stielers Hand Atlas of 1891 can appreciate what Hedin accomplished between 1893 and 1935. Although Hedin's research

5800-725: The era of discovery came to a close around 1920, Hedin contented himself with organizing the Sino-Swedish Expedition for qualified scientific explorers. Between 1893 and 1897, Hedin investigated the Pamir Mountains , travelling through the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang region, across the Taklamakan Desert , Lake Kara-Koshun and Lake Bosten , proceeding to study northern Tibet . He covered 26,000 kilometres (16,000 mi) on this journey and mapped 10,498 kilometres (6,523 mi) of them on 552 sheets. Approximately 3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi) led through previously uncharted areas. He started out on this expedition on 16 October 1893, from Stockholm, traveling via Saint Petersburg and Tashkent to

5900-459: The expedition and carry out research in their areas of specialty. Hedin met Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing , who thereupon became a patron of the expedition. The Sino-Swedish Expedition was honored with a Chinese postage stamp series which had a print run of 25,000. The four stamps show camels at a camp with the expedition flag and bear the Chinese text, "Postal Service of the Prosperous Middle Kingdom" and in Latin underneath, "Scientific Expedition to

6000-583: The expedition and set out for the desert with only half as much water as could actually be carried. When he noticed the mistake, it was too late to return. Obsessed by his urge to carry out his research, Hedin deserted the caravan and proceeded alone on horseback with his servant. When that escort also collapsed from thirst, Hedin left him behind as well, but managed to reach a water source at the last desperate moment. He did, however, return to his servant with water and rescued him. Nevertheless, his ruthless behavior earned him massive criticism. In January 1896, after

6100-410: The expedition in an active war zone, and obtaining access for the expedition's participants to a research area intensely contested by local warlords . Nevertheless, the expedition was a scientific success. The archaeological artifacts which had been sent to Sweden were scientifically assessed for three years (or four years according to Chung-Chang Shen (C.C. Shen), who was the administrative officer for

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6200-684: The health risks posed by the towering mushroom clouds and the release of radioactive fallout . 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 , 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, mounted on towers, launching missiles, detonating weapons underground and in

6300-401: The high price Hedin was selling them at, but years later became valuable treasures among collectors. The first part of the expedition, from 1927 to 1932, led from Beijing via Baotou to Mongolia , over the Gobi Desert , through Xinjiang to Ürümqi , and into the northern and eastern parts of the Tarim Basin . The expedition had a wealth of scientific results which are being published up to

6400-487: The inhabitants of drinking water. During his travels in 1900 and 1901 he attempted in vain to reach the city of Lhasa , which was forbidden to Europeans. He continued to Leh , in Ladakh district, India. From Leh, Hedin's route took him to Lahore , Delhi, Agra , Lucknow , Benares to Calcutta , meeting there with George Nathaniel Curzon , England's then Viceroy to India. This expedition resulted in 1,149 pages of maps, on which Hedin depicted newly discovered lands. He

6500-411: 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). Aurel Stein also excavated at the site in the beginning of the 20th century, while Chinese archaeologists explored the area in the latter part of

6600-438: The lake-filled basin. Loulan became a client state of the Chinese empire in 55 BC, renamed Shanshan . Faxian went by the Lop Desert on his way to the Indus valley (395–414), followed by later Chinese pilgrims. Marco Polo in his travels passed through the Lop Desert . In the 19th century and early 20th century, the explorers Ferdinand von Richthofen , Nikolai Przhevalsky , Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein visited and studied

6700-404: The last mysterious portions of Asia and filling in the gaps by mapping an area completely unknown in Europe. As an explorer, Hedin became important for the Asian and European powers, who courted him, invited him to give numerous lectures, and hoped to obtain from him in return topographic, economic and strategic information about inner Asia, which they considered part of their sphere of influence. As

6800-406: The latter half of the nineteenth century, then back again to Lop Nur in 1921 through human intervention. The building of dams by Chinese garrisons in the twentieth century blocked the water from the rivers feeding in to Lop Nur and it is now primarily salt flats. The dried-up Lop Nur basin is covered with a salt crust from 0.3 to 1 m (0.98 to 3.28 ft) thick. Natural vegetation is sparse in

6900-405: The most part then dried out, with only small seasonal lakes forming in local depressions in Taitema. 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

7000-425: The mountains and deserts of Central Asia , he mapped and researched parts of Chinese Turkestan (now Xinjiang ) and Tibet which had been unexplored by Europeans until then. Upon his return to Stockholm in 1909 he was received as triumphantly as Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld. In 1902, he became the last Swede (to date) to be raised to the untitled nobility and was considered one of Sweden's most important personalities. As

7100-675: The oil fields of Robert Nobel . Afterward he attended a course in topography for general staff officers for one month in summer 1885 and took a few weeks of instruction in portrait drawing; this comprised his entire training in those areas. On 15 August 1885, he traveled to Baku with Erhard Sandgren and instructed him there for seven months, and he himself began to learn the Latin , French, German, Persian , Russian, English and Tatar languages. He later learned several Persian dialects as well as Turkish , Kyrgyz , Mongolian , Tibetan and some Chinese. On 6 April 1886, Hedin left Baku for Iran (then called Persia), traveling by paddle steamer over

7200-457: The outlying foothills of the Altyn-Tagh . The climate of Lop Desert is extremely arid, a study in 1984 gives a mean annual precipitation of generally less than 20 mm (0.79 in), in another study in 2008 it was recorded as 31.2 mm (1.23 in). In the depression centre below 800 m (2,600 ft) in elevation, aridity can be expected to be much more extreme. Relative humidity of

7300-487: The participation of 37 scientists from six countries. Despite Chinese counter-demonstrations and after months of negotiations in the Republic of China , was he able to make the expedition also a Chinese one by obtaining Chinese research commissions and the participation of Chinese scientists. He also concluded a contract which guaranteed freedom of travel for this expedition which, because of its arms, 300 camels, and activities in

7400-554: The poplar forests was initiated. The Kara-Koshun dried basin may be considered part of the greater Lop Nur. On 17 June 1980, Chinese scientist Peng Jiamu 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. 40°10′N 90°35′E  /  40.167°N 90.583°E  / 40.167; 90.583 Lop Nur, situated in

7500-565: The power vacuum in Central Asia with gold medals, diamond-encrusted grand crosses, honorary doctorates and splendid receptions, as well as with logistic and financial support for his expeditions. Hedin, in addition to Nikolai Przhevalsky , Sir Francis Younghusband , and Sir Aurel Stein , was an active player in the British-Russian struggle for influence in Central Asia, known as the Great Game . Their travels were supported because they filled in

7600-411: The presence of a drilling rig that had created a deep vertical shaft. This shaft was believed to be designed to contain the destructive power of radiation resulting from large nuclear explosions . Further analysis of the satellite images since 2017 also uncovered the development of new infrastructure at the site. This included the construction of new roads, power lines, an electrical substation, and

7700-541: The present Lop Nur dried 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,

7800-615: The present time. For example, the discovery of specific deposits of iron, manganese , oil, coal and gold reserves was of great economic relevance for China. In recognition of his achievements, the Berlin Geographical Society presented him with the Ferdinand von Richthofen Medal in 1933; the same honor was also awarded to Erich von Drygalski for his Gauss Expedition to the Antarctic ; and to Alfred Philippson for his research on

7900-424: The public. From around 1800 BC until the 9th century the lake 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

8000-440: The publication of additional volumes. In 1935, Hedin made his exclusive knowledge about Central Asia available, not only to the Swedish government, but also to foreign governments such as China and Germany, in lectures and personal discussions with political representatives of Chiang Kai-shek and Adolf Hitler . Although he was not a National Socialist , Hedin's hope that Nazi Germany would protect Scandinavia from invasion by

8100-426: The region and poor in the number of species. A scientific expedition to the Lop Nur region in 1979-1982 collected only 36 species of plants, belonging to 13 families (mainly Chenopodiaceae and Compositae ) and 26 genera. The expedition also collected only 127 species of animals (23 mammals, 91 birds, 7 reptiles, and 1 amphibian). Archaeologist Sven Hedin who travelled in the region in the late nineteenth as well as

8200-425: The region. The whole of this region is swept bare of sand by the terrific sand storms ( burans ) of the spring months and the particles of wind-blown sand act like a sand blast. Abrasion of the rocks forms yardangs . The desert itself is abraded, filed, eroded and carried bodily away into the network of lakes in which the Tarim River wanders. The sand also blows across the lower, constantly shifting waterways of

8300-471: The sacred Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailash , the midpoint of the earth according to Buddhist and Hindu mythology. The most important goal of the expedition was the search for the sources of the Indus and Brahmaputra Rivers, both of which Hedin found. From India, he returned via Japan and Russia to Stockholm. He returned from this expedition with a collection of geological samples which are kept and studied in

8400-411: The same month, he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy with a 28-page dissertation entitled Personal Observations of Damavand . This dissertation is a summary of one part of his book, King Oscar's Legation to the Shah of Persia in 1890 . Eric Wennerholm remarked on the subject: I can only come to the conclusion that Sven [Hedin] received his doctorate when he was 27 years old after studying for

8500-631: The security of Scandinavia, he favored the Swedish Navy 's construction of the battleship Sverige . In World War I he specifically allied himself in his publications with the German Empire and its conduct of the war. Because of this political involvement, his scientific reputation was damaged among the Allied powers , along with his memberships in their geographical societies and learned associations, as well as any support for his planned expeditions. After

8600-454: The turn of the millennium: in the Lop Nur desert, Hedin discovered in 1933 and 1934 ruins of signal towers which prove that the Great Wall of China once extended as far west as Xinjiang . From 1931 until his death in 1952, Hedin lived in Stockholm in a modern high-rise in a preferred location, the address being Norr Mälarstrand 66. He lived with his siblings in the upper three stories and from

8700-408: The twentieth century was able to travel by boat up the rivers to the lake and saw a multitude of wildlife. However, many wild animals, such as tiger, wolf and wild hog which had been found by former explorers, have now disappeared. Nevertheless, it is still one of the last refuges of wild Bactrian camel (Camelus ferus) in the world. These wild camels may be found in the reed oases on the north edge of

8800-637: Was a Swedish geographer , topographer , explorer, photographer, travel writer and illustrator of his own works. During four expeditions to Central Asia, he made the Transhimalaya known in the West and located sources of the Brahmaputra , Indus and Sutlej Rivers. He also mapped lake Lop Nur , and the remains of cities, grave sites and the Great Wall of China in the deserts of the Tarim Basin . In his book Från pol till pol ( From Pole to Pole ), Hedin describes

8900-400: Was also suggested by Hedin as the reason why ancient settlements such as Loulan had perished. In 1921, due to human intervention, the terminal lake shifted its position back to Lop Nur. The lake measured 2400 km in area in 1930–1931. In 1934, Sven Hedin 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

9000-485: Was also the first to unearth the ruins of ancient Buddhist cities in Chinese Central Asia. However, as his main interest in archaeology was finding ancient cities, he had little interest in gathering data thorough scientific excavations. Of small stature, with a bookish, bespectacled appearance, Hedin nevertheless proved himself a determined explorer, surviving several close brushes with death from hostile forces and

9100-480: Was born in Stockholm, the son of Ludwig Hedin, Chief Architect of Stockholm. When he was 15 years old Hedin witnessed the triumphal return of the Swedish Arctic explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld after his first navigation of the Northern Sea Route . He describes this experience in his book My Life as an Explorer as follows: On 24 April 1880, the steamer Vega sailed into Stockholms ström . The entire city

9200-468: Was called Puchang Hai (蒲昌海, literally Sea of Abundant Reed) and was given a dimension of 300 to 400 li (roughly 120–160 km) in length and breadth, indicating it was once a lake of great size. These early texts also mentioned the belief, mistaken as it turns out, that the lake joins the Yellow River at Jishi through an underground channel as the source of the river. The lake was referred to as

9300-399: Was decisive for my future. Thunderous jubilation resounded from quays, streets, windows and rooftops. "That is how I want to return home some day," I thought to myself. In May 1885, Hedin graduated from Beskowska secondary school in Stockholm. He then accepted an offer to accompany the student Erhard Sandgren as his private tutor to Baku , where Sandgren's father was working as an engineer in

9400-465: 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

9500-713: 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. 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 . Sven Hedin Sven Anders Hedin , KNO1kl RVO , (19 February 1865 – 26 November 1952)

9600-469: Was illuminated. The buildings around the harbor glowed in the light of innumerable lamps and torches. Gas flames depicted the constellation of Vega on the castle. Amidst this sea of light the famous ship glided into the harbor. I was standing on the Södermalm heights with my parents and siblings, from which we had a superb view. I was gripped by great nervous tension. I will remember this day until I die, as it

9700-453: Was not up to this challenge. I had gotten out onto the wild routes of Asia too early, I had perceived too much of the splendor and magnificence of the Orient, the silence of the deserts and the loneliness of long journeys. I could not get used to the idea of spending a long period of time back in school. Hedin had therewith decided to become an explorer. He was attracted to the idea of traveling to

9800-496: Was reported as 2,901 mm (114.2 in). Historically there were periods when the area was more favorable to farming and settlement than today. Studies showed that the area experienced seven major climate changes since the end of the Pleistocene . There are numerous indications that suggest the presence of an extensive lake in this region which is now completely desiccated. These indications include salt -stained depressions of

9900-677: Was taboo in Germany and Sweden because of his conduct relating to Nazi Germany, and stagnated for decades in Germany, the scientific documentation of his expeditions was translated into Chinese by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and incorporated into Chinese research. Following recommendations made by Hedin to the Chinese Nationalist government in 1935, the routes he selected were used to construct streets and train tracks, as well as dams and canals to irrigate new farms being established in

10000-627: Was the first to describe yardang formations in the Lop Desert. Between 1905 and 1908, Hedin investigated the Central Iranian desert basins, the western highlands of Tibet and the Transhimalaya , which for a time was afterward called the Hedin Range. He visited the 9th Panchen Lama in the cloistered city of Tashilhunpo in Shigatse . Hedin was the first European to reach the Kailash region, including

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