The Kings of Hami were hereditary Uighur rulers who paid tribute to China. The last king of Hami; Maqsud Shah died in the mid-1930s. Nine generations of kings of Hami are buried here.

The ancient oasis settlement of Hami; also known in Uighur as Kumul; sits in a fault depression about 200m below sea level and; like nearby Turpan; experiences extremes of temperature ranging from a scalding 45C in summer to a freezing -30C in winter.

Silk Road caravans stopped in Hami for its fresh springs and water runoff brought by karez underground canals from the distant Karlik Tagh; and for its fabled fresh fruit - Hami melons are famous across China today. More importantly still; they stopped here because there simply was nowhere else to go. Hami still remains the only significant oasis in the Gashun Gobi; an essential stop on the long and difficult desert stages between Anxi and Turpan.