Shipton's Arch

Shipton's Arch (Uyghur: تۆشۈك تاغ, Төшүк тағ, romanized: Töshük tagh, literally "Hole Mountain"; simplified Chinese: 阿图什天门; traditional Chinese: 阿圖什天門; pinyin: Ātúshí tiānmén; Wade–Giles: A1t'u2shih2 t'ien1men2; lit.

'Heavenly Gate') is a conglomerate natural arch in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

It is located in Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture west-northwest of Kashgar, near the village of Artux, at an altitude of 2,973 metres (9,754 ft).

Though long familiar to locals (the south side of the arch is visible from the plain below) it was famously discovered in 1947 by English mountaineer Eric Shipton during his tenure as the British consul in Kashgar – and made known to the West in his book Mountains of Tartary.

[2] Today, several companies operating out of Kashgar offer day trips to the arch for tourists.