Geography
The Khotan oasis’ geographical position is the main contributing factor to its success and wealth. The oasis of Khotan is situated in one of the most arid and desolate climates on the earth, the Taklimakan Desert. However Khotan is located at the far south of the Taklimakan at the foot of the outer hills of the Kun-lun range, extending along the range for around 40 miles. At all times irrigated from the Yurung-kàsh and Kara-kàsh rivers, which water the Basin. These two rivers produce vast quantities of water which made habitation possible in an otherwise arid climate. The position next to the mountain not only provided irrigation for crops but it also increased the fertility of the land as the rivers reduce the gradient and deposited their sediment, creating a more fertile soil. This therefore increased the productivity of the agricultural industry which has made Khotan famous for its cereal crops and fruits. Therefore Khotan’s lifeline was its vicinity to the Kun-lun mountain range and without this Khotan would not have become one of the largest and most successful oasis cities along the Silk Roads.
Read more about this topic: Kingdom Of Khotan
Famous quotes containing the word geography:
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Ktaadn, near which we were to pass the next day, is said to mean “Highest Land.” So much geography is there in their names.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)