Lop Nur used to be a large lake, also known as Lop Nur. "Rob" is an ancient Turkic word that means the gathering of waters. "Naoer" is the Mongolian language, the meaning of the sea.

In the early Pleistocene of the Quaternary Period, the climate was cool and rainy, and the area of the ancient lake of Lop Nur exceeded 200,000 square kilometers.

When Zhang Qian passed through Lop Nur on his mission to the Western Regions, the locals told him that this large lake often disappeared suddenly at a certain time. Zhang Qian believes that Lop Nur drilled into the ground, underflowing for thousands of miles, and then exposed the surface, so there was the Yellow River......

Military writer Pang Tianshu wrote in the book:

Lop Nur has disappeared several times in its own history and reappeared several times. Because of the new wave of orogeny, because of global climate change, because of human reclamation activities, the river water has been diverted and cut off...... Lop Nur dies and rises again, resurrects and dies again, the true reincarnation of the sixth.

Some scientists believe that Lop Nur is constantly drifting, while others oppose it. No matter what the conclusion is, the ghost land of Lop Nur is even more confusing.

When did it become a desert?

In 1934, the world-famous explorer Sven Hedin visited Lop Nur, when there were still more than 1,000 square kilometers of water, and he wrote in "Eight Years of Exploration in the Hinterland of Asia"——

At that time, Lop Nur was like a mirror, with many wild ducks playing on the lake and many fish gulls flying in the air. Looking around, a mirage appeared in the southeast direction, and a row of dark shadows hovered on the horizon. To the southwest, something like a spaceship floated over Lop Nur......

For 350 years, the waters gradually dried up, and by the end of the 60s of the last century, they completely disappeared and became the mysterious Sea of Death. Not a single grass, not a single stream, not a single insect, and the surface temperature in summer is as high as 80 ° C. No bird dares to cross.

The greatest tree in the desert is the poplar, which lives without dying for 1,000 years, dies without falling for 1,000 years, and dies without withering for 1,000 years. Even Populus euphratica died in Lop Nur and eventually became extinct.

In 1949, a plane from Chongqing to Dihua (Urumqi) disappeared over Shanshan, and in 1958 it was found on a salt crust east of Lop Nur, killing all the people on board. What is puzzling is that the plane was originally flying to the northwest, why did it suddenly change course and fly due south? Nobody knows.

In 1950, a certain unit of the People's Liberation Army suppressed bandits in the Tarim Basin, and a guard disappeared after breaking out of the siege on horseback, and 32 years later, the geological team found his body in Hongliugou on the south bank of Lop Nur. It was more than a hundred kilometers from the place where he disappeared.

In 1959, Li Quanyou and others from the Heavy Magnetic Survey Team of the Petroleum Bureau entered the area east of Lop Nur to explore and found four corpses.

In July 1978, a large truck of the Ninth Division of the First Brigade of the Xinjiang Geology and Mining Bureau was transporting supplies to Lop Nur operators, and the driver, deputy and assistant engineer went missing.

On June 17, 1980, the famous scientist Peng Jiamu mysteriously disappeared during an investigation in Lop Nur. In 2007, a dried corpse was finally found in Lop Nur, but after DNA identification, the dried corpse was not Pengamu.

In 1990, seven people from Hami took a passenger and freight car to Lop Nur to look for crystal mines, and never returned. Two years later, three dried bodies were found at the bottom of a steep slope. The car was 30 kilometers away from the deceased, and the whereabouts of the others are unknown.

In 1995, Milan farm workers led two relatives to Lop Nur to explore treasure and go missing. Later, an explorer found two bodies 17 kilometers away from Loulan, the car was intact, there was no shortage of gasoline and water, and the cause of death was unknown.

In June 1996, Chinese explorer Yu Chunshun was killed on foot across Lop Nur.

In 1997, a family of three in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, under the leadership of their father, went to Loulan to hunt for treasures, never returned, and finally their bodies were found by gold diggers.

In late 2005, the body of an unnamed male was found in Lop Nur, and he went on his own expedition to Lop Nur, but he died for unknown reasons.

In the same year, the armed police force drove into Lop Nur to look for gold mines, and in the Hongshanzui area, Zhao Shengling, a recruit from Shandong who had been in the army for less than half a year, disappeared. Three days later, his comrades found him on a mountain beam, and by this time he was glazed over, expressionless, and no matter how many people shouted at him and hugged him, he was as unresponsive as a wooden man......

In 2007, two nameless bodies were found on the edge of Lop Nur, and some scattered ancient coins and artifacts were found along the footprints, leading to the conclusion that they were tomb robbers.

There are also some white bones, no one knows who they are, and that will be a mystery forever.

On February 27, 2009, Uyghur driver Kasim, his friends and four guides, drove from Shanshan County across the southwest desert into Lop Nur, and they came to the Tiepanhe River, near the ancient city of Loulan. The Tiepan River is a dry riverbed, deep and shallow, with staggered ravines and dangers, no reference, similar everywhere, and it is easy to get lost. Kasim mysteriously disappeared here.

The rescuers searched 9 times, and only found Kasim's will and telescopes and other relics. The will was written in pencil, and he said to his wife: "Dear wife, I may not be able to get out." I'm sorry for you, the child is still young, and the burden of the family has been given to you, I blame myself and love you! I don't owe anyone a debt out there. I still have some deposits in the Agricultural Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, see if the lottery ticket I bought two days ago has won. If anyone finds out about my will, please contact my friend Parhati, mobile phone number......

The most recent tragedy occurred in February 2013, when a scientific expedition team went to Lop Nur to look for manganese ore, and seven people went missing......

So far, no one has been able to cross Lop Nur on foot.

Some people call the Lop Nur region the "Devil's Triangle" on the Asian continent.

The ancient Silk Road passed through there, and throughout the ages, many lonely souls and wild ghosts roamed there, and dry bones were everywhere. The Eastern Jin Dynasty monk Fa Xian wrote almost appalling words and sentences in the "Buddha's Country Record" for Lop Nur: "There are many evil ghosts and hot winds in the Sand River, and those who meet them will die, and there is no one who is perfect, there are no birds on the top, and there are no beasts below......

In the dead of night, I comb my heart.

The reason why my idea of going to Lop Nur is getting stronger and stronger shows that I do subconsciously think that I am different from others.

When I was very young, my parents disappeared one after another, and I grew up in my uncle's house.

When he heard that his father had gone to the northwest, he never returned.

Half a year later, my mother also ran away from home, I don't know where she went, and now I suspect that she went to find her father and also went to the northwest.

And Lop Nur is in the northwest!

Perhaps, that place has my roots.

Even if I can't find anything, I want to explore.

I don't like to mention my age, but I'm 45 years old after all, and if I don't go this time, I don't think I will have the physical strength to cross Lop Nur again.

After making up my mind, I started exercising.

Run every morning, swim at noon, and work out in the afternoon.

I live in the eastern suburbs of Lancheng, which is quiet and good for writing stories.

That night, I came home from dinner on the side of the street, took a shower and was about to go to bed when the phone rang.

My phone number is only used to communicate with my 15-year-old daughter across the ocean, and few people know about it. I looked at it, it wasn't my daughter's, it wasn't Monsoon's, it was probably a harassing call.

I didn't.

After a while, the phone rang again, and it was still the same unfamiliar number. I still didn't answer.

After lying down, I just turned off the lights and the text came. I picked it up and looked at it, 5 words: I walk with you.

Who is this?