The Flaming Mountains run 100 kilometers (62 miles) along the northern edge of Turpan Depression (Basin) from east to west with its extreme width of 10 kilometers(6.2 miles). Its highest peak is 40 kilometers (248 miles) east of the city of Turpan and 831.7 meters (2728 feet) above sea level.
Crustal movements and years of efflorescence fashion its unique geological feature. When the sun's rays beat down in mid-afternoon, the red rocks on the crisscross gullies and ravines reflect and the heat is intense as if the hillsides were engulfed by tongues of fire, hence the name.
Legendary
In the famous 16th century Chinese classic novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en describing four monks in Tang dynasty adventuring the west, Xuan Zang and his companions, Pigsy, Monkey and Sandy, attempted to cross the Flaming Mountains. They could not penetrate the flames and Monkey procured a magical palm-leaf fan from Princess Iron Fan, wife of the Ox Demon King (two fiction figures in the novel) and waved it 49 times, causing heavy rains to extinguish the fire.More anecdotes tell that to cross the Flaming Mountains, Monkey burnt his tail, and ever since then all monkeys have had red bottoms.
The Flaming Mountains, lying in the middle of the Turpan Depression and running from east to west, are one of the branch ranges of the Tianshan Mountains and were formed in the organic movements of Himalayas fifty million years ago.
Over millions of years, the natural weathering and numerous folded belts caused by the movements of the Earth's crust have formed the undulating lie and the crisscross gullies and ravines of the Flaming Mountains. Under the blazing sun, the red rock glows and hot air curls up like smoke as though it were on fire, hence it's name.
The mountains are ninety-eight kilometers long and nine kilometers wide. The highest peak is forty kilometers east of the city of Turpan (map) and 831.7 meters above sea level.
The Flaming Mountains are so hot and so dry that "flying birds even a thousand miles away dare not to come." Yet, the mountains at the same time act like a giant natural dam of the underground reservoir in the basin.
Situated on the north route of the ancient Silk Road, the Flaming Mountains have many cultural relics and the well-known story of the Monkey King (a leading figure in the Chinese classical novel "Journey to the West"), who extinguished the flame with a magic fan, have enjoyed high popularity . In recent years, the number of visitors to the mountains has been on the increase and a clamoring to go on the Flaming Mountains tour has risen.