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Landmark East Asia wonder

Gobi Desert

3000 BCE – still standing

Vast Asian desert stretching across Mongolia and China, rich in dinosaur fossils and nomadic heritage

See it on the timeline

Wikipedia

The opening of the article, and a way into the rest of it without leaving the site.

Gobi Desert on Wikipedia.

Read the article

Who held this ground

Borders from dated snapshots, up to a century apart; precision varies.

Reconstruction

  1. No border recorded here in this snapshot (3000 BCE–2000 BCE)
  2. Proto-Altaic pastoralists (1500 BCE–500 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  3. Xiongnu (400 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  4. No border recorded here in this snapshot (323 BCE–300 BCE)
  5. Xiongnu (200 BCE–1 BCE) Border precision: Approximate
  6. Southern Xiongnu (100 CE–200 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  7. No border recorded here in this snapshot (300 CE–500 CE)
  8. Göktürks (600 CE–700 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  9. Uyghurs (800 CE–900 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  10. No border recorded here in this snapshot (1000 CE)
  11. Cuman-Kipchak confederation (1100 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  12. Mongols (1200 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  13. Great Khanate (1279 CE–1300 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  14. Ming Empire (1400 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  15. Chagatai Khanate (1492 CE–1500 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  16. No border recorded here in this snapshot (1530 CE)
  17. central Asian khanates (1600 CE–1700 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  18. Manchu Empire (1715 CE) Border precision: Defined
  19. Qing Empire (1783 CE–1800 CE) Border precision: Not stated
  20. Manchu Empire (1815 CE–1900 CE) Border precision: Defined
  21. Mongolia (1914 CE–2026 CE) Border precision: Defined
Border precision
  • Defined
  • Approximate
  • Not stated

Elsewhere in East Asia at the time

Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.

See the whole view

Polity · East Asia

China

Founded 1945 CE · attested to 2026 CE

Landmark · East Asia

Great Wall of China

700 BCE – still standing

Conflict · East Asia

Sengoku Period (Japanese Warring States)

1467 CE – 1615 CE

Trade route · East Asia

Silk Road

200 BCE – 1450 CE

Polity · East Asia

Manchu Empire

Attested 1650 CE – 1914 CE

Landmark · East Asia

Gyeongju Historic Areas

57 BCE – 935 CE

Conflict · East Asia

Warring States Period

475 BCE – 221 BCE

Trade route · East Asia

Maritime Silk Road

200 BCE – 1500 CE

Dated moments inside this span

Events the timeline places between 3000 BCE and 2026 CE.

2000 BCE Rice Terraces of Banaue 1200 BCE Sanxingdui 1046 BCE Shang–Zhou War (Battle of Muye) 771 BCE Spring and Autumn Period Wars 700 BCE Great Wall of China 500 BCE Plain of Jars

And in the rest of the world

Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.

Great Pyramid of Giza Landmark · Middle East 2560 BCE – still standing Tibet Polity · South Asia 1000 CE – 1960 CE World War I Conflict · Europe 1914 CE – 1918 CE Nile River Trade Trade route · Middle East 3000 BCE – 30 BCE Sargon of Akkad Figure · Mesopotamia 2334 BCE – 2279 BCE Petra Landmark · Middle East 300 BCE – still standing
Image credits 8 pictures from Wikimedia Commons