The Tarim River, which means "unbridled horse" and "field" in the Uygur language, is located in the northern part of the Tarim Basin in China's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It originates in Tianshan and Karakoram mountains and flows into Tetma Lake. Covering an area of 1.02 million square kilometers and stretching 2,179 kilometers long, it is the longest inland river in China and the fifth longest of its kind in the world.