Mutou Valley is located in the

Flaming Mountains The Flaming Mountains () or Huoyan Mountains, are barren, eroded, red sandstone hills in the Tian Shan of Xinjiang. They lie near the northern rim of the Taklamakan Desert and east of the city of Turpan. Their striking gullies and trenches caused b ...

, near the ancient oasis city of

Gaochang Gaochang (; Old Uyghur: ''Qocho''), also called Khocho, Karakhoja, Qara-hoja, Kara-Khoja or Karahoja (قاراغوجا in Uyghur), was a ruined, ancient oasis city on the northern rim of the inhospitable Taklamakan Desert in present-day Xinj ...

on the rim of the

Taklamakan Desert The Taklimakan or Taklamakan Desert (; zh, s=塔克拉玛干沙漠, p=Tǎkèlāmǎgān Shāmò, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Такәламаган Шамә; ug, تەكلىماكان قۇملۇقى, Täklimakan qumluqi; also spelled Taklimakan and Te ...

in the

Xinjiang Autonomous Region Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Under a cliff in the Mutou Valley is located the

Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves The Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves (, Uyghur: بزقلیق مىڭ ئۆيى ) is a complex of Buddhist cave grottos dating from the 5th to 14th century between the cities of Turpan and Shanshan (Loulan) at the north-east of the Taklamakan Desert ...

, a complex of Buddhist caves temples dating from the 5th to the 9th centuries.

Footnotes

Sites along the Silk Road Valleys of Xinjiang {{Xinjiang-geo-stub