A rare 'red sand sea' on the edge of the Taklimakan Desert

Photographers have recently captured a striking "red sand sea" in Keping County, Xinjiang on the northern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, where crimson dunes stretch across the Gobi under blue skies, and camel caravans wander, their bells echoing like a scene from a Silk Road painting.

This unique landscape was formed by the tectonic uplift of "red-bed" sedimentary rocks, whose sandstone weathered into red grains over millennia and eventually accumulated to create the spectacular expanse seen today.