Loulan: the sleeping princesses

In Taklamakan, a desert in Central Asia, in China, there is a legendary place called Loulan, through which the Silk Road used to run. The city, which was discovered by the Swedish explorer, Sven Hedin in the early 20th century, houses a cemetery containing 300 graves. None of them has been subject to scientific study. In spite of the extreme weather conditions, a Chinese-Japanese expedition began to excavate the site and to discover mummies in wooden sarcophagi in exceptional condition.

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