Flaming Mountains

The Flaming Mountains or Gaochang Mountains are desolate, dissolved, red sandstone slopes in the Tian Shan of Xinjiang. They lie close to the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert and east of the city of Turpan. Their striking crevasses and trenches caused by disintegration of the red sandstone bedrock give the mountains a blazing appearance at specific occasions of the day.

The mountains are roughly 100 kilometers 60 mi long and 5– 10 km wide, crossing the Turpan Depression from east to west. The normal tallness of the Flaming Mountains is 500 m 1,600 ft, with a few pinnacles coming to more than 800 m 2,600 ft. One of the biggest thermometers in China, a mainstream place of interest, is in plain view adjoining the mountain, following the encompassing ground temperatures.

Various essential palaeontological remains have been found in the zone. As per the traditional novel Journey toward the West, the Monkey King made an aggravation in the sky and thumped over a furnace, making coals tumble from the sky to where the Flaming Mountains are currently. In a Uigur legend, a winged serpent lived in the Tianshan Mountains. Since the mythical beast ate little kids, a Uigur legend slew the winged serpent and cut it into eight pieces. The mythical beast's blood transformed into a red pile of blood and the eight pieces turned into the eight valleys in the Flaming Mountains.