Flaming Mountain

The Flaming Mountain is lying in the middle of the Turpan Depression and running from east to west is 98kms long, and 9km wide, and it is one of the branch ranges of the Tianshan Mountain. The average height of the flaming mountain is between 400 to 500 meters, and highest peak of the flaming mountain is 831.7 meters above sea level.

The mountain is barren and extremely hot in summer. During the trek approaching the mountain, visitors will find the soles of their shoes soften in the intense heat. The ground temperature may reach 80 degrees centigrade. Geologists say that the Flaming Mountains were formed Himalayas fifty million years ago, by magma bursting forth from under the sea during movement of the earth’s crust, while the ravines and gullies crisscrossing the slopes are the result of erosion since those times. Under the blazing sun, the russet sandstone sparkles, and hot vapor rises and coils like flames from a great fire, which is how the mountains got their name? The Flaming Mountains are so hot and so dry, the mountains at the same time act like a giant natural dam of the underground reservoir in the basin.

The Flaming Mountains have many cultural relics and often told ancient tales.
The mountain is combination of red sand and rocks that makes the mountain looks like a red dragon sleeping on the area basin.

In the best-known Chinese novel “Journey to the West”, the Flaming Mountain fill with different evil characters that fight with the high monk Tang and his three disciples. Tang Xuan Zang and his followers who travelled west in search of the Buddhist sutra. They could not penetrate the flames and Monkey (one of his flowers) procured a magical palm leaf fan from princess Iron Fan, wife of the Ox demon king and waved it 49 times, causing heavy rains to extinguish the fire. There are many old legendary stories make this mountain unique, attractive and with lots of room for wild imagination.