Yarkand

Yarkand (modern Chinese name �城, pinyin: Yèchéng, also Chokkuka, anciently Suoju 莎車, also written Shache and Suoche; 37°52′N 77°24′E alt. about 1,189 m. or 3,900 ft.; pop. about 72,000 in 1990), was an ancient Buddhist kingdom located between Pishan and Kashgar on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of the Taklamakan desert in the Tarim Basin. The area lies in present day Xinjiang, China.

The fertile oasis today is watered by the Yarkand River which flows north down from the Congling mountains (lit. 'Onion Mountains' - from the abundance of wild onions found there). The oasis now covers some 3,210 sq. km. (1,240 sq. mi.), but was likely far more extensive before the period of desiccation began to afflict the region from the 3rd century CE onwards.

Yarkand is strategically located about half way between Khotan and Kashgar, at the junction of a branch road north to Aksu. It also was the terminus for caravans coming from India via Ladakh and then over the Karakoram Pass to the Tarim Basin.

From Yarkand another important route headed southwest via Tashkurghan to the Wakhan corridor from where travellers could cross the relatively easy Baroghil Pass into what is now northern Pakistan, or head down the valley and into Badakshan.

A town of the same name survives today.