Bazar Dara (Bāzār Darra, Tágh Nák, Tokanak or Maza Dala) was a small mining community at the junction of the Bazar Dara and Yarkand Rivers south of the Kunlun Mountains in the Xinjiang region of China, bordering on the Taklamakan Desert.
'Dara' means 'cliff' in the Uyghur language.[1] Bazar Dara can, therefore, be translated, 'Cliff Bazaar' or 'Cliff Market,' an apt description of this ancient settlement. It is 139 km west of Shahidulla, and 25 km west of modern Mazar (Chinese: Mazha 麻扎), which name simply indicates the shrine of a Muslim holy man.
"The name of this kingdom is written Deruo [or Dere] 得若 in the Tangshu (ch. CCXXI, a, p. 9b) and Yiruo 億若 in the Weilüe. . . ." Translated and adapted from Édouard Chavannes: "Les pays d’Occident d’après le Heou Han chou." T’oung pao 8, (1907), p. 175, n. 2.[2]