Yarkand

Yarkand, the commercial capital of Eastern Turkestan, on the Yarkand or Zerafshan River, about 100 miles SE. of Kashgar; pop. 60,000. It was visited by Marco Polo, but was hardly known till R. Shaw in 1871 published an account of his residence there three years before. The oasis in which it stands is very fertile, and there is great wealth of minerals in the mountains within view of it. See TURKESTAN and books quoted there.