The Tarim Basin is a gigantic depression in Central Asia. This southern region of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China has long attracted the attention of scientists. The basin's inland position and its profound geographical isolation, enclosed by the highest mountain ranges such as the Tianshan, Pamirs, and Kunlun Mountains, have determined the extreme aridity of this vast desert region. Its unique and incomparable natural environment makes scientific investigation both attractive and fascinating. However, the basin is occupied internally by the endless Taklamakan Desert and surrounded by lofty mountain ranges, making access extremely difficult. As a result, this region of China has remained relatively poorly studied. In 1959, the Xinjiang Comprehensive Expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the People's Republic of China carried out investigations in the Tarim Basin and the Kunlun Mountains, continuing the work begun in 1956 to study the natural conditions and resources of Xinjiang for the agricultural development of the desert plains of the region. With the participation of Soviet scientists, the expedition succeeded in conducting a series of interesting route surveys. These investigations made it possible to gain a new understanding of the natural conditions of the southern Tarim Basin. The expedition included specialists from many disciplines: hydrologists, geomorphologists, hydrogeologists, botanists, soil scientists, land-reclamation specialists, entomologists, agronomists, and economists. Prior to the Xinjiang Comprehensive Expedition, never before had so many natural scientists of different specialties worked together in the Kunlun Mountains. Consequently, the studies carried out by the Academy of Sciences of the People's Republic of China in the country's far western regions helped, to some extent, fill one of the “blank spots” on the map of Central Asia. The results of earlier years of work were partially reflected in the collections of papers entitled Natural Conditions of Xinjiang, published in Chinese and Russian in Beijing and Moscow in 1959 and 1960. The articles included in the present volume were prepared on the basis of materials collected during the expedition's 1959 field season. They focus primarily on questions of geomorphological structure and genesis, hydrological characteristics, patterns of soil and vegetation cover, and the techniques and features of desert landscapes in the Tarim Basin. The materials presented here are the result of cooperation between Chinese and Soviet scientists. In addition to articles written by members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, this volume also includes a paper by the Chinese scholars Zhou Ziruo and Zhao Ji. Their study is devoted to one of the most interesting problems in the modern geography of Central Asia: the migration of the Tarim River, the largest river in southern Xinjiang. On the basis of field investigations of the Tarim River and studies of Chinese historical chronicles, the authors successfully traced the changes that the river has undergone over many centuries as a result of repeated shifts in its course across the alluvial plain. It is hoped that the publication of the works of the Xinjiang Comprehensive Expedition will not end with this volume. It should be concluded with the expedition's final series of publications. Some of these works are also planned for publication in Russian. They will provide Soviet scientists with extensive comparative material on the physical geography of Central Asia and Inner Asia and will enable them to gain a clear understanding of the entire belt of Asian deserts, extending from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Yellow River in the east.