The Flaming Mountains, 10 kilometers northeast of Turpan city, is called "Mountain of Red Rocks" in ancient books. In the language of Uygur nationality, it is a red mountain. Formed by red sandstones, the Flaming Mountains starts from the Lan'gan Liusha (Drifting Sand) River of the Shanshan County in the east and ends at the Tao'er (Peach) Gouge in Turpan, like a long red giant dragon lying in the Turpan Basin. It is 98 kilometers long and 9 meters wide, with an average altitude of about 500 meters and the peak of 831.7 meters near the Tuyu Gouge of the Shanshan County.

The Flaming Mountains is a short fold of the Bogeda Mountain at the east section of the Tianshan Mountain and it was formed during the movement of the Himalayas. The fold mountain was formed 140 million years ago and the basic landforms were shaped before 141 million years. The Flaming Mountains has undergone long geological changes, spanning the Jurassic Period, the Cretaceous Period and the Tertiary Period.

The Flaming Mountains has not even a blade of grass on it due to its harsh natural conditions. It is extremely hot in summer and the rocks are as red as fire. People in the early Ming Dynasty connected the natural appearance of the mountains with hot weather and therefore started to call it the Flaming Mountains. The hottest place across China, the Flaming Mountains has a maximum temperature of 47.8¢J in summer and the surface temperature of the area is as high as more than 70¢J. People even can roast eggs in sand.

Crustal movement and incision of rivers have left the mountains with many gouges and valleys, which mainly include the Tao¡Šer (Peach) Gouge, the Mutou (Wood) Gouge, the Tuyu Gouge, the Lianmuqin Gouge and the Subo Gouge, etc. At these gouges and valleys, greenery shut out the sun, the view is beautiful, streams flow gently and melons and fruits spread their sweet and fragrant smells near and far. In the late Ming Dynasty, the famous Chinese ancient novelist Wu Cheng'en wrote the well-known novel of "Journey to the West". The novel has a vivid description about the Flaming Mountains where Monkey King borrowed an iron fan from the Iron Fan Princess to put out the fires of the Flaming Mountains.