Distribution of shadow houses in Turpan basin

Shaded houses are distributed on roofs or hillsides.

The shade room is set on the roof or hillside, made of adobe, and the walls are covered with small holes. In Turpan, you can often see this kind of shade room with holes around it, which is used to dry raisins, mainly because of less precipitation, high light intensity, long time, high temperature and many dry and hot winds in summer. The holes in the wall of the shady room are not only convenient for ventilation and evaporation, but also conducive to drying, which can prevent raisins from becoming sour and discolored due to sunlight.

Turpan basin is an intermountain basin on the southern slope of East Tianshan Mountain in Xinjiang, covering an area of 50 140 square kilometers, mainly in Turpan area. Turpan means lowland in Uighur. Turpan Basin is a typical graben basin, and it is also the place with the lowest terrain and the highest temperature in summer in China.