China: Corridor ceiling decoration in the Hui Wang Fen (Palace and Tombs of the Hami Kings) complex, Hami (Kumul), Xinjiang Province

The Kings of Hami were hereditary Uighur rulers who paid tribute to China. The last king of Hami, Maqsud Shah died in the mid-1930s. Nine generations of kings of Hami are buried here.

The ancient oasis settlement of Hami, also known in Uighur as Kumul, sits in a fault depression about 200m below sea level and, like nearby Turpan, experiences extremes of temperature ranging from a scalding 45C in summer to a freezing -30C in winter.

Silk Road caravans stopped in Hami for its fresh springs and water runoff brought by karez underground canals from the distant Karlik Tagh, and for its fabled fresh fruit – Hami melons are famous across China today. More importantly still, they stopped here because there simply was nowhere else to go. Hami still remains the only significant oasis in the Gashun Gobi, an essential stop on the long and difficult desert stages between Anxi and Turpan.

Copyright:

CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

David Henley

Credit:

Pictures From Asia