• Mesa
  • Shandan County

A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a more resistant layer or layers of harder rock, e.g. shales overlain by sandstones. The resistant layer acts as a caprock that forms the flat summit of a mesa. The caprock can consist of either sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and limestone; dissected lava flows; or a deeply eroded duricrust. Unlike plateau, whose usage does not imply horizontal layers of bedrock, e.g. Tibetan Plateau, the term mesa applies exclusively to the landforms built of flat-lying strata. Instead, flat-topped plateaus are specifically known as tablelands.

Shandan County, which belongs to Zhangye City, Gansu Province, is located in the middle of Hexi Corridor. It is the east gate of Jinzhangye, an important town on Silk Road. It is adjacent to Yongchang to the east, Qinghai to the south and Alashan right Banner in Inner Mongolia to the north. It is 148km long from north to south and 89km wide from east to west, with a total area of 5402 square kilometers. Shandan County is 15505,4441 meters above sea level, surrounded by mountains on three sides, high in the southeast and low in the northwest, with a continental cold and semi-arid climate. The economy of Shandan County is mainly agriculture and animal husbandry, with 857000 mu of arable land and 460000 mu of perennial cultivated area. It is a semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral county. The county is rich in tourism resources, there are national 4A scenic spots, "Expo Holy Land" Yanzhi Mountain Forest Park. It has the largest military racecourse in Asia, Shandan Army Racecourse, which has become the location shooting venue for many films. Famous Buddhist temples
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