Buddhist temple ruins found in Taklamakan Desert  

新疆考古发现千年前最大回字形佛殿遗址

记者从新疆和田地区策勒县文物局了解到，中国社科院考古研究所新疆考古队近日在对策勒县达玛沟佛教遗址进行考古清理时，发现一处最大的回字形佛殿遗址，遗址中的佛寺也是目前塔克拉玛干沙漠遗址群中的最大佛寺。

Hetian (CNS) -- The ruins of an ancient Buddhist temple in the Taklamakan Desert have been discovered by the Xinjiang archeological team of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The ruins are located in the southern part of the desert in Cele county of Hetian (Hotan), according to the local administration of cultural heritage on Saturday.

The height of the sitting Buddha statue at the temple is about two meters, and the height of the temple's main hall may reach as high as six meters, said Wu Xinhua, leader of the archaeological team.

The temple represents the largest in the Taklamakan Desert in terms of scale, he added.

Judging from the layout of the ruins and the artifacts uncovered at the site, Wu and his colleagues dated the temple back to the late Western Han Dynasty.