The Takla Makan desert is a barren area of the central Tarim Basin in the northwestern Chinese border district of Xinjiang. Since the early 1900s a number of bodies have been recovered from the area; the mummies have distinctly Caucasian features.
The Takla Makan Mummies: Human Migration and Ethnic Discord
The Takla Makan mummies provide controversial evidence that China’s north western Xinjiang province was once settled by early Europeans. DNA has helped to unravel the migratory patterns of these early incomers, and the complexity of the cultural mix.