Above the Clouds, Tarim Basin, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China
Photograph by Mathias Ortmann
This aerial view was photographed over the mountains near the southeastern rim of the Tarim Basin in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region near the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.
The Tarim Basin is a vast, 350,000 square mile endorheic basin, meaning that it is a closed drainage basin, where water from the surrounding mountain ranges flows into, but has no exit point into rivers or oceans.
