Chinese scientists have completed a survey of the Lop Nur Desert in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and sketched 49 relief maps of the former lake area, now known as "the sea of death".

They are the first standard topographical maps, with a 1:50,000 scale, of the Lop Nur, a 20,000-square-km area rich in oil, gas, coal and mineral resources.

Cartographers from six western Chinese localities, including Xinjiang, Gansu and Qinghai, began surveying the Lop Nur in early October and spent more than two months collecting topographic data and images for the mapping, said Pu Xingtao, a scientist with the Gansu Bureau of Surveying and Mapping.

The mapping covers the Lop Nur Depression, Kumtag Desert and Altun Mountain in southeastern Xinjiang, he said.

Pu said the project has drawn a clear picture of the region's natural resources and a valuable road map for hikers and geologists to walk out of its desert alive.

In 1980, Peng Jiamu, a noted Chinese scientist, went missing in his fourth expedition to the Lop Nur and was never found.

Last year, four tourists died of sunstroke in the same region.

"With maps of the Lop Nur to be published soon, we hope such tragedies will not happen again," said Pu.

Lop Nur used to be the largest lake in northwestern China before it dried up in 1972 as a result of desertification and environmental degradation.

It once nurtured the civilization of Loulan (Kroraina). The ancient city was one of the pivotal stops along the famous Silk Road, but mysteriously disappeared around the third century AD.

Due to its typical geology, geography and historical values, Lop Nur has attracted the attention of scientists from home and abroad since the mid 19th century.

China launched an ambitious project last year to map all its 2.02 million square kilometers of unmapped areas, largely in the deserts of southern Xinjiang and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. These regions make up about 20 percent of the country's territory.

(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2007)