"Dinosaurs Along The Silk Road" -- Sinofossa 2009 15: Dunhuang & The Mogao Grottoes
Dunhuang sits at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert. The city has long been an oasis on the Silk Road; old Roman trade routes went through here. The desert on the edge of town is dominated by the tallest sand dunes I've ever seen -- I believe that some may be over 300 ft. high. (I'm not certain if these are part of, or only next to, the Mingsha (Sighing) Sand Dunes). I only got a hazy glimpse of them in the distance last time I came through Dunhuang in 2005, and we had plans this year to actually drive out into them. But because it was very windy in the morning, we decided to push that off 'til after the Mogao Grottoes. The wind got even worse in the afternoon, as you'll see in the photos below, so this shot I got out of our bus window while turning was the only good shot I could get of the dunes...
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