Lop Lake lies to the east of Korla. It was an important station on the ancient Silk Road and once a 
very large lake. In the Han dynasty, it was the second largest inland lake in China and was even mistaken as the source of the Yellow River. Now, the Lop Lake, reputed as the "lake of death", attracts historians and geographers from home and abroad every year.
Lop Lake is also called Lop Nur, a transliteration of the lake's Mongolian name, which means a lake where waters gather. The lake was once a huge lake in the northeast of the western regions, where about 6 or 7 river joined here, such as the Tarim River, the Peacock River, the Milan River, etc.
However, through years of deforestation and environmental deterioration, nowadays we can only find the lake has been reduced to be a desolate land with rings and rings of salt shells, surrounded by salt marshes and a salt-encrusted plain.