Flaming Mountains

Flaming Mountains are so named because in the evenings the red clay mountains reflect the heat and glow of the desert and seem to burn. Under the blazing sun, the red rock glows and hot air curls up like smoke as though it were on fire, hence its name.

Situated on the northern edge of the Turpan Basin, and stretching over 100 km long and 10 km wide, this place is an intensely hot part of the desert without a single blade of grass to be seen for miles. In the severe heat of July, the Flaming Mountains seem to be on fire in the burning sun and become a purplish-brown color. Hot steam rises upwards from the burning cliffs and it is no surprise that this is where the hottest temperatures in China ever, were recorded.

The Flaming Mountains are one of the branch ranges of the Tianshan Mountains and were formed in the organic movements of the Himalayas fifty million years ago. With the reputation of a place that “flying birds even 500 kilometers away dare not to come", the Flaming Mountains act like a giant natural dam of the underground reservoir in the basin.

Recommended Turpan Tour: 7 Days Xijiang Discovery Tour
(Destination: Urumqi-Turpan-Kashgar)