The mountain of flames
11 min readWhen mentioning the Mountain of Flames, it is well known of the story of “Sanzang’s Way Is blocked at the Fiery mountains, Monkey Tries to Borrow the Plantain Fan for Three Times”in one of China’s four ma jor classical novels The Journey to the West which connects the Mountain of Flames with Sanzang, Monkey King, Princess Iron Fan, and Bull Demon King and other characters covering the mountain with a layer of mystery, making it a world-renowned queer mountain. Visitors can still see the hitching post -a block of towering hillstone standing at Shengjinkou until now, which was said to be used by Sanzang when he was passing the Mountain of Flames; and there is a flat-topped slope far away, which is said to be the stepping stone for Sanzang to get on horse; in the east of the hitching post, there is a huge rock as if with a mouth on it, seated on the top of a peak across the canyon, which is called the Pigsy rock.
The Mountain of Flames is located in the northern margin of the Turpan Basin, which is the only place for passing via the north route of the ancient Silk Road. It is called”Red Rock Mountain”in ancient books, and”kyzyltage”(means Red Mountain) in Uygur. The mountain is formed by red sandstones and it extends from Liushahe River (River of Quick Sand) in Langan Town, Shanshan County in the east, and to the peach Ditch of Turpan in the westforming the shape of a red dragon the mountain lies in the Turpan basin in a east-west direction The mountain is 98km long and 9km wide with the average height about 500m.
and the highest peak is located near the Tuyugou in Shanshan County with the altitude of831.7m. It is barren without even a blade of grass. When in the midsummer, especially in July, the sun shines overhead, the vapour rises from the earth, and the flamy fogs surrounds the mountain, making the reddish brown mountain look like a flying fiery dragon which is really spectacular.
The Mountain of Flames is the hottest place in China, with the highest temperature in summer up to 478C. and the highest temperature of land surface above 70C. where the eggs can be well cooked in sand holes Owing to the crustal fault caused by its movement and the incision by rivers, many valleys have been created on the mountainside, such as thePeach Ditch, Wood Ditch, Tuyug, Lianmuqin Ditch, and Subo Ditch, etc. All these valleys are full of woods that shade the sun, and the landscape is beautiful with the murmuring running waters as well as the fragrant fruits.
The mountain of flames is one of the branches of tianshan mountains which was formed in the orogeny period of the Himalaya Mountains of fifty or sixty million years ago Through the tens of millions years, the lateral movement of earth crust has created folded belts, which has formed the waving of mountains as well as the vertical and many horizontal gullies under the erosion effect of the nature Turpan”means”the lowest place”in Uygur. It is located in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent, deep in the interior, far from the sea, and surrounded by a large area of arid zone; the place is between the Bogda Mountains of Eastern Tianshan and Kuluketage Mountains, forming the famous Turpan-Hami subsidence basin. Due to the extreme drought, the carrying capability of flowing water is quite weak, the hydraulic accumulation effect is slight. while the Mountain of flames sits in the north-central basin. and the blocking effect prevents the weathered materials by the runoff erosion from entering into the center of the basin, thus the subsidence cannot be replenished, and then it is natural that the basin is becoming lower and lower Turpan is far from the sea, and the marine moist air masses are unable to enter; meanwhile, the water vapor from the atlantic Oceanis prevented by Tianshan Mountains; Owing to the extremely low terrain and the elevation difference over short distances between the mountains and the basin over 5 600m the foehn effect generated from the sinking air makes the place hot and dry. Therefore, Turpan is known as”The land of fire It is the only “Furnace in the world above the line of northern latitude 42, owing to the following factors: bare mountains without grass andtrees, the large area of Gobi desert, the long hours of sunshine, the rapid warming in daytime, too low terrain of the basin and difficult dissipation of hot air Turpan belongs to the typical continental arid desert climate. Although the annual average temperature is only 14 5C, the number of days with the temperature of over 35Cis more than 100, and even the extremely hot days with the temperature of over 38C are more than 38 days, The absolute maximum temperature measured over the years is 496C (On July 13, 1975), and the surface temperature can reach 83, 3C, which is the veritable the “hot pole in China”. The average annual precipitation of Turpan is only 16 mm, and summer accounts for a half; while in Toksun County, the annual precipitation is only 59mm, it is no wonder that there is no rain throughout the year, or there is rain but no one is aware, therefore it can also be described as the”Dry pole of china Although it is unbearably hot the mountain of Flames is a dam of a natural underground reservoir. It is precisely because that the Mountain of Flames prevents the underground water infiltrated from the Gobi gravel zone, the phreatic level is raised and a phreatic overflowing belt is formed in the northern edge of the mountain, watering Shanshan. Lianmugin Subashi and other oases with several springs and making the fantastic scenes with fruit fragrance in Turpan Basin About the formation of the Mountain of Flames, Wu Cheng’ en wrote in his Journey to the West that the mountain was formed by the several bricks with ember kicked off by the Monkey King when he escaped from the alchemy furnace of the Very High Lord, those flaming bricks fell on the earth and then burned the mountains into the mountain of flames however, it was just legendarized, while, how the mountain came into shape is really related to fire. Some scholars believe that the fire is from the spontaneous combustion of the underground coal seam. They have found that there was a period of flaming in the history when inspecting the mountain; it was because of the coal seam in the stratum that formed the mountain Some of the coal seams are 11m thick which had self-ignited; and the thicker ones of near-surface have burnt out, leaving the purple red scabs which can be confirmed in historical documents. Wang Yande wrote in Travelling records in gaochang.
In the north mountain of Beiting(the Mountain of Flames), there is often the smoke rising however it does not form the cloud or mist In the evening, the flame is like that of the torch, and the birds and mice all became fire red reflected by the flaming. “Censen, the frontier fortress poet in Tang Dynasty, had written in his poem Passing the Mountain of Flames that “I see the mountain of Flames for the first time today and it is located in the east of the Puchang County The red flame burns the clouds and the heat steams the sky. I do not know why and where comes the coal burning here. It is winter when I come here, but hot wind blows quite often at the bottom of the mountain, Men and horses are all sweating, who can imagine it is the power of nature.
Tuyuq grand Canyon
Tuyuq grand Canyon is located in the middle of the Mountain of Flames in Shanshan County, starting from Subashi village in the north to Mazar village in the south, and the Canyon between the two villages is about 12. 5km long with an area of about 12km. The ends of the north and south are connected with simple winding mountain road. The southwest side of south entrance of the canyon is 13km away from the ancient city of Gaochang. The highest peak of the Mountain of Flames is located in this canyon with an altitude of 8317m.
The grand Canyon is the most mysterious place in western China. This is the intersection of the two world famous religious cultures, the most important post of the spreading of Buddhism into China, one of the seven holy places of Islam in the world, the largest Islamic holy land in China, and it was known as the”Oriental Mecca”in history There are the tuyuq Thousand Buddha Caves excavated in the Western Jin Dynasty and the period of Sixteen States, the Grand Mosques of Islamic architectural style, the ruins of Tibetan Buddhist temples, and the well-preserved ancient Uygur villages called”Folk custom Living Fossil”and so on. The ancient Uygur villages, integrated with the magnificent canyons, long history, and rich cultural deposits, form a mysterious, unique and fantastic landscape.
Canyon scenery: Tuyuq grand Canyon concentrates the essence of the landscape of the Mountain of Flames. The two peaks in the east and west of the canyon are known as the Natural Wall of Fire”with the temperature sometimes up to the highest 60C The color of the mountain body is red ocher, and the soil in the canyon is also yellowish red. The yellowish red soil is the most suitable soil for planting seedless white grapes, therefore when grapes were introduced into China from the Mediterranean coast, the canyon became the actual hometown of the seedless white grapes. The peculiarness of the mountain profile, the beautifulness of the rocks, the exquisiteness of the mountain streams, and the sweetness of the fruits are seldom found in other canyons and it is called”the mostspectacular canyon in the Mountain of Flames by the traveling tourists and surveyin scholars over the past century.
Tuyuq Thousand Buddha Cave: Tuyuq Thousand Buddha Cave is among the first batch of cultural relic protection units of autonomous region level authorized in January, 1957 which owns quite significant status in the history of Xinjiang’s religious culture and art The caves and Buddha statues were discovered early in the Western Jin Dynasty and the Sixteen States Period. having the third largest scale among the several existing historic sites of Buddhist caves in Xinjiang. Tuyuq Thousand Buddha Cave is impressive for it is the works before Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in history, as well as qutie a number of the preserved earlier murals; therefore, every year, a large number of tourists and scholars from Japan, South Korea, United States, India, Hong Kong, Macao. Taiwan and other countries and regions will come here for tour, inspection, and archaeological studies Tuyuq Asawlekaifei Mazar: Tuyuq Asawlekaifei Mazar, which is one of the two oldest and the most famous Mazars in Xinjiang, owns a prominent position in the Islamic hol lands. It is located in the entrance of the southwest ditch of the tuyuq Thousand buddha Cave with a history of over 1,000 years according to the legendary saying. This mazar is one of the world’s seven holy lands of Islam, and also the largest Islamic holy land in China. In accordance with the saying of the local Muslims, one must first worship in the tuyuq Asa wlekaifei Mazar before the pilgrimage to mecca in the Middle East. Nowadays there are more than 200 people coming here for tour, inspection, and visit every weekday, while up to 500-800 people at the weekends.
The Ancient Uygur Folk Dwellings: Tuyuq residents inherited the 2,000-year tradition of building dwellings with yellow clay, which are all cave-type accommodations built withyellow clay with the characteristics of being economical and practical, warm in winter while cool in summer, as well as the attractive appearance. The ancient fok dwellings engraved in the slopes of the east and west sides of Tuyuq are continuously arranged, with the oldest ones owning a history of four to five hundred years. The residents here have also built underground caves with yellow clay for summering In those ages of no electric fans or air-conditionings, the underground caves were the best place for summering; it is recorded in the ancient document, In order to handlethe hot weather in the day, people all work on the underground cave-dwellings, while only come out to work when night falls.
Grape valley
Grape Valley, which is a valley on the west side of the mountain of Flames, is located inthe northeast corner of the county of Turpan, Although it is quite hot at the foot of the Mountain of Flames with hot wind blowing on the face, the breeze blows gently in the Grape Valley which makes people feel cool and comfortable Grape Valley is about 8km long, and it is a veritable”Kingdom of Grapes”. There are vineyards throughout the field. even the lands around houses and beside the channels or roads are planted with grapes, and strings of agate-like grapes hang under the grape trellisblocking almost all the sun. There is a wide variety of grapes in the valley, such as mare’s milk grape, red grapes, black grapes, Thompson seedless, clamp dried grapes, and Suosuo grapes. Some have the similar color to jade, some to agate; some are as small as pearls and some as big as olives; some are juicy and sweet with thin peel and some are juicy and sour with crispy pulp. The most valuable species among the variety is the Thompson seedless, which got the name for its seedless, white as jade, and crystal clear; the grape is small juicy, and sweet with the sugar content up to 22%-24%, and it is praised as “green pearl in the international grape market.
There is a kind of very special houses built on the higher slope in the valley, and the walls are all built with sun-dried mud bricks, on which there are densely dotted with air holes. The larger type is almost as high as a two-storey building, which is attractive andlooks like an old castle when watched afar; while when getting near, you will feel that it looks like a giant square “cage of amusing katydid “which is unique and peculiar, while, this is the house for making raisins. The houses are called”Qunjie(Clusterings)”by the local Uygur, and”shading house”in Chinese, enhancing the amazing color to the charming and attractive scenery of the Grape Valley. In the shading house, the “purlins”as thick as a bowl are set on the roof every half meter, and wooden forks as long as the chopsticks, and as thick as the finger are inserted every half meter on each purlin, which are the wooden hooks for hanging grapes. During the grape ripening season, baskets of fresh grapes are shipped here, and hung on the hooks from top of the roof to the bottom; when the house is full of grapes, the door will be closed, and let the peculiar hot wind in Turpan Basin breathing in through the air hole to dry the grapes inside; about 40 days later, the fresh grapes will turn into raisins. These natural dried raisins are yellowish green and semitransparent, pliable, sweet and delicious.
