The Geography of the Puranas c9.35
The Geography of the Purāṇas c9.35
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c9.35
The extent and nature of the 'Plain' depicted above shows without any doubt that it refers to the Taklamakan desert which forms the core of the Tarim basin—the Dead Heart of Asia. The two mountains between which it lies belong to the southern rampart of the basin (i.e., the Altin Tagh) and not to the northern range (Tien-Shan), since they are not mentioned along with those mountains which flank the Tarim (Sītā) river. They are therefore the eastern and western spurs of the former between which the desert lies.