The Wandering Lake - Lop Nor Lake, Sinkiang province,
The People's Republic of China
ASTER VNIR Level 1B

 An inland lake located at the east end of the Tarim Basin in the south-eastern part of the Sinkiang province, the People's Republic of China. Since the latter half of the 19th century, through the explorations conducted by a Swedish explorer Sven Hedin, the lake was found to be shifting and moving its position along with the changing paths of the rivers flowing into the lake. Thus, the lake became to be known as "The Wandering Lake".

However, now, the river paths such as the Tarim River have not been reaching to the lake affected by water intake dams, etc. and therefore, the lake is completely dried out.

Looking for the traces of the lake from the outer space, the traces look like the shape of a human ear. (Something lying across above the ear are the clouds.)
At the west lakeside, there are remains of the LOULAN which suddenly vanished at the end of the 4th century, however, identifying its remains by ASTER data has been a difficult task.