This windswept dune was known as the Sands That Sing to travellers like Marco Polo: “… when one of them chances to lag behind […] when he tries to gain his company again he will hear spirits talking and will suppose them to be his comrades, […] and thus shall a traveller oft times be led astray so that he never finds his party. And in this way, many have perished.” The Travels of Marco Polo, Vol 1 Bk 1, Ch 39 Taklimakan Desert, Gansu, China