![]() This was the once-lost urban center of the Kingdom of Niya, amply chronicled under the name Jing-jue during the Chinese Han period (206 B.C. ![]() In the middle of the ghost town was a 20-foot-high Buddhist shrine made of sun-dried mud bricks. We found irrigation canals that once diverted the river to water crops. There were stables, graves, reservoirs and even a bridge over the bone-dry bed of the Niya River, which watered the city during a happier climate. We found houses with courtyards harboring dead fruit trees and shriveled grape vines. Our expedition was the only sign of life for miles, yet we could see remains of more than 70 wooden structures. ![]() At last, our caravan of three trucks and 30 camels entered the ruins of a city where time stopped about 1,500 years ago. For three hot, dry days, we trekked into the sands of western China's forbidding Taklimakan Desert.
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