Kashgar is one of the most exotic cities of the world. Throughout recorded history, all branches of the Silk road passed through Kashgar. This great oasis (elevation about 4000 ft) is bounded on the north, west and south by high mountains and on the east by the Taklamakan, one of the most desolate deserts in the world. More than 90% of the people in Kashgar are Uighurs, Turkish-speaking descendents of a great empire that extended throughout Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan during the 8th and 9th centuries. At that time the Uighurs were Buddhists, Nestorian Christians, and Manicheists. They became Muslims when conquered by the Karakhanids in the 10th C.




The great Mosque at Kashgar - Idkah Mosque