Kashgar

The earliest recorded names of the city are Shufu (疏附) and Shule (疏勒). Shufu originally referred to Kashgar's old city inhabited by the Uyghurs, while Shule referred to the new city built by Han Chinese settlers, located 6 miles (9.7 km) from the old one. Shule may have been an attempt by the Chinese to transcribe the Sanskrit name for Kashgar, Śrīkrīrāti (lit. 'fortunate hospitality'). The origin of the name Kashgar is not known for certain and is the subject of academic debate. The Roman geographer Ptolemy (90–168), in his work Geography, refers to the city as Kasi. The Buddhist scholar Xuanzang meanwhile recorded the name Kasha after passing through the city in 644. The name Kashgar did not appear in Chinese records (as 喀什噶爾; Kàshígé'ěr) until the Song dynasty (960–1279), but it was likely to have been used orally long before then. …

Kashgar is located at the convergence point of widely varying cultures and empires, it has been under the rule of the historically Chinese, Turkic, Mongol, and Tibetan empires. The city has also been the site of a number of battles between various groups of people on the steppes. The earliest mention of Kashgar occurs when a Chinese Han dynasty envoy travelled the Northern Silk Road to explore lands to the west. Another early mention of Kashgar is during the Former Han (also known as the Western Han dynasty), when in 76 BC the Chinese conquered the Xiongnu, Yutian (Khotan), Sulei (Kashgar) and a group of states in the Tarim Basin almost up to the foot of the Tian Shan range. Ptolemy speaks of Scythia beyond the Imaus, which is in a "Kasia Regio", probably exhibiting the name from which Kashgar and Kashgaria (often applied to the district) are formed. …

Kashgar features a cool arid climate (Köppen BWk, Trewartha BWao) with hot summers and cold winters creating a large temperature difference between those two seasons: The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −5.2 °C (22.6 °F) in January to 25.9 °C (78.6 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 12.6 °C (54.7 °F). Spring is long and arrives quickly, while autumn is somewhat brief in comparison. Kashgar is one of the driest cities on the planet, averaging only 85.2 mm (3.35 in) of precipitation per year. The city's wettest month, May, only sees on average 14.0 mm (0.55 in) of rain. Because of the extremely arid conditions, snowfall is rare, despite the cold winters. Records have been as low as −24.4 °C (−12 °F) on 12 January 1959 and as high as 40.1 °C (104.2 °F) on 12 July 1958. The frost-free period averages 215 days. …