Ayding Lake
The Ayding Lake is located in the Qiatekale Village 50 kilometers from Turpan City in the south at an altitude of 155 meters below sea level. The Ayding Lake is called the "Jueluoyuan" in the Uighur language which means the "Moonlight Lake" which is really a beautiful name. But few people can see the scene when the lake is in the moonlight. Among the four extremes：the hottest, the driest, the sweetest and the lowest, The Ayding Lake, the lowest, is endowed with the most mystery.
The Ayding Lake is an inland salt lake and is included into the aggraded lakes of the fourth age. It came into being owing to the mountain-building movement of the Himalayas and was formed about 249 million years ago and used to be an inland sea with an area of about 50 thousand square kilometers.
It was endowed with surging green waves and magnificent sea movement, however, owing to all kinds of natural and human elements, the area decreased dramatically and reduced to only 22.5 square kilometers by the year of 1958 with a depth of only 0.8 meters.
The lake has been transformed and the bottom of the lake is covered with silver-white salt crystals. In the sunshine, it shines sparkling like the moonlight on a clear cold night. However, the enchanting scenery of the moon reflected in the water in the early days has been replaced by the silt and salty Salina in the center of the lake and what has left is the uniquely developed salt carapace on the surface of the earth, the extremely desolate lake scenery and the mirage occurring now and then. However, it still attracts many tourists who come to photograph or explore.
The water of the Ayding Lake mainly comes from the water of more than two hundred rivers in mountains to the west and east formed by the melting of modern glacier and the snow water of the Tainting Mountain gushing from the north edge of the basin and underground springs.
According to the findings of a scientific review, owing to the increase of the water during the flood period in the summer of recent years, the Ayding Lake has enough water resources and there is a renewal of the water surface of the lake. So there is a possibility that people will once again see waves of Ayding Lake in the Moonlight.
The degree of mineralization of the water in the Ayding Lake is very high and the weather in the lake area is extremely dry and the scenery in the lake area is very desolate and the development of the salt carapace on the ground is very special, forming a magnificent and primitive Landscape.
How to Get There?
Visitors can get there by tourist bus.
Opening Hours
10:00 AM - 21:00 PM