Shipton's Arch ( ug, تۆشۈك تاغ, translit=Töshük tagh, yengi=Tɵxük taƣ, ucy=Төшүк тағ, literally "Hole Mountain"; or simply ) is a conglomerate

natural arch A natural arch, natural bridge, or (less commonly) rock arch is a natural landform where an arch has formed with an opening underneath. Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, coastal cliffs, fins or stacks are subject to erosion ...

in China's

Xinjiang Uyghur 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 ...

. It is located in Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture west-northwest of Kashgar, near the village of

Artux Artux, Artush ( ug, ئاتۇش شەھىرى; ky, ارتىش, Артыш, Artysh), and officially rendered as Atuş ( zh, s=阿图什市, p=Ātúshí Shì),The official spelling according to is a county-level city and the capital of the Kyrgyz au ...

, at an altitude of . It is probably the world's tallest natural arch. Though long familiar to locals (the south side of the arch is visible from the plain below) it was famously "discovered" in 1947 by English mountaineer Eric Shipton during his tenure as the British consul in Kashgar – and made known to the West in his book ''Mountains of Tartary''. Shipton made unsuccessful attempts to reach the arch from the south but was defeated each time by a maze of steep canyons and cliffs. The arch once figured in the '' Guinness Book of Records'' for its exceptional height, but the editors of the book could not verify the location of the arch exactly, so the listing was dropped. It was only as recently as May 2000 that an expedition sponsored by National Geographic rediscovered the arch for the outside world. Today, several companies operating out of Kashgar offer day trips to the arch for tourists. The arch is about a one- to two-hour drive from Kashgar in addition to another one- to two-hour hike. It used to be that visitors were guided by locals and required to climb shaky ladders on their way to the arch but China has since invested money into a visitor's center, staircases and a viewing deck. The Gobi March 2008, an international stage race, took competitors to the top of the arch during its seven-day, 250-kilometer footrace. The height of the arch is estimated to be , about the height of the Empire State Building. The span of the arch is roughly . The "true" height of the arch is debatable: viewing the arch from the north (normal approach route) it appears to be tall from the top of the rubble pile; from the south side (approachable via a technical canyon ascent), the height is closer to the estimated . The height depends upon what constitutes the base of the arch, which is either the base of the rubble pile (which is partially under the arch and where the span achieves its maximum width) or the floor of the west side canyon head, lower.

References

{{authority control Landforms of Xinjiang Natural arches of China Rock formations of China