The earth is a place of endless wonder. Where landscapes are often created from mere dust. The Loess Plateau is such a place.
It’s located in the north of the central China, and contains 70% of the loess on the planet. It is hard to imagine a time when it did not exist. But this yellow land was created by particles carried by the wind. The entire mega landscape has a total area of 620,000 square kilometers. Even seen from above, it’s hard to comprehend the sheer size of it. The loess dune is dozens of meters high, and 300 meters at its thickest. Eight million years ago, super strong winds blew sand and dust here. The entire process of dust carrying and stacking took more than 2.6 million years. Scientists can tell the wind direction by the thickness of the loess. Because tiny dust particles are carried the furthest, they came to rest in the southeastern most part of the plateau. The sand in the northwest part of the plateau is much rougher. Where the river crossed, an alluvial plain was deposited. People gradually started to settle around these fertile areas. They farmed in the valley and built roads between the ravines. Finally, they made this ancient land their home and prospered generation after generation.