Mazartag

English

Alternative forms

• Masartag

Etymology

Borrowed from Uyghur مازارتاغ (mazartagh).

Proper noun

Mazartag

1. A mountain range in Xinjiang, China, in the Taklamakan Desert.
   • 1996, Zhou Zhiyi, W. T. Dean, editors, Phanerozoic Geology of Northwest China‎^[1], Beijing: Science Press, →OCLC, page 125:

     In the course of marine incursion and sedimentation, the sea only reached the Wuqia area during the late Eocene, but in Palaeocene - middle Eocene, marine conditions extended eastwards into the desert of the Mazartag area, and southwards, probably into the Aqqik area of Lop.

   • 2011, “Major and Other Notable Deserts of the World”, in John P. Rafferty, editor, Deserts and Steppes‎^[2], 1st edition, Encyclopedia Britannica, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 106:

     Several small mountain ranges and chains, composed of sandstones and clays of Cenozoic age (i.e., formed within about the past 65 million years), rise in the western part of the desert. The arc-shaped Mazartag Mountains, located between the Hotan and Yarkand (Ye’erqiang) river valleys, arch toward the southwest.

   • 2013 August 25, Mark Kitto, “Phantom enemies”, in Prospect‎^[3], archived from the original on 27 August 2013, Essays:

     Two days later I was in the middle of the Taklamakan desert. I had driven there, along a new road that cuts past a major landmark, the low lying ridge of the Mazartag mountains that come to an abrupt end at the Hetian river. There’s a ruined Tibetan fort on the top of the mountains’ end, overlooking the river. It dates from the 18th century when the Tibetan empire stretched northwards to the Tianshan mountains. Below the fort was the site of a resupply point from the expedition. I wanted to show my children.[...]
     We had an eventful drive through a blinding sandstorm, a couple of police checkpoints, and then along a sandy track off the main road that was too much for the car. We dug it out. Then the rain began—rain, in the desert. We set up camp and cooked supper. The wind had died to nothing. It was a beautiful evening. In the west the Mazartag ridge glowed red in the setting sun.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Mazartag.

Translations

mountain range

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 麻扎塔格 (Mázhātǎgé)

• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Uyghur: مازارتاغ (mazartagh)