Pamir Mountains

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Pamir Mountains
Pamir Mountains
Highest point
Peak	Kongur Tagh
Elevation	7,649 m (25,095 ft)
Coordinates	38°35′39″N 75°18′48″E / 38.59417°N 75.31333°E / 38.59417; 75.31333
Geography
Countries	Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan and Xinjiang[B]
Range coordinates	38°30′N 73°30′E / 38.5°N 73.5°E / 38.5; 73.5

The Pamir Mountains are a range of mountains between Central Asia and South Asia. They are located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world's highest mountains.

Much of the Pamir Mountains lie in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan.^[1] To the south, they border the Hindu Kush mountains along Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan Province, Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. To the north, they join the Tian Shan mountains along the Alay Valley of Kyrgyzstan. To the east, they extend to the range that includes China's Kongur Tagh, in the "Eastern Pamirs",^[2] separated by the Yarkand valley from the Kunlun Mountains.

PAMIR

AMU DARYA

HELMAND

HINDU KUSH

class=notpageimage|

Pamir as seen from the map, as well as the Amu Darya river which rises from the Pamir mountains north of the Hindu Kush and the Helmand River which is the longest river in the entire country of Afghanistan.

Since the Victorian era, they have been known as the "Roof of the World", presumably a translation from Persian.^[3]

Names and etymology

In other languages

The Pamir region is home to several different cultures, peoples and languages. In some of these languages, the Pamir Mountains are referred by different names.

In Indo-European languages, they are called:

• پامیر غرونه Pāmīr Ghrūna in Pashto;
• رشته کوه‌های پامیر, Ришта Кӯҳҳои Помир, Rishta Kūhhoi Pomir in Tajik;
• پامیر کوهستان Pāmīr Kohistān in Urdu;
• सुमेरु Sumeru in Sanskrit.

In

• پامىر توولورۇ, Памир Тоолору, Pamir Tooloru in Kyrgyz;
• پامىر ئېگىزلىكى, Pamir Ëgizliki, Памир Егизлики in Uyghur.

In

According to Middleton and Thomas, "pamir" is also a geological term.[6] A pamir is a flat plateau or U-shaped valley surrounded by mountains. It forms when a glacier or ice field melts leaving a rocky plain. A pamir lasts until erosion forms soil and cuts down normal valleys. This type of terrain is found in the east and north of the Wakhan,^[7] and the east and south of Gorno-Badakhshan, as opposed to the valleys and gorges of the west. Pamirs are used for summer pasture.^[6][7]

The

The Pamir River is in the south-west of the Pamirs.

Geography

• 
  Kongur Tagh (left) and Kongur Tiube (slightly to the right) as seen from the Karakoram Highway
• 
  Slopes of Pamir Mountains on the Chinese side and Muztagh Ata
• 
  Pamir Mountains from a NASA satellite image, April 2012

Mountain

The three highest mountains in the Pamirs core are Ismoil Somoni Peak (known from 1932 to 1962 as Stalin Peak, and from 1962 to 1998 as Communism Peak), 7,495 m (24,590 ft); Ibn Sina Peak (still unofficially known as Lenin Peak), 7,134 m (23,406 ft); and Peak Korzhenevskaya (Russian: Пик Корженевской, Pik Korzhenevskoi), 7,105 m (23,310 ft).^[8] In the Eastern Pamirs, China's Kongur Tagh is the highest at 7,649 m (25,095 ft).

Among the significant peaks of the Pamir Mountains are the following:^[9]

Name	Height in meters	Coord.	Sub-range	Country
Kongur (Kungur Tagh)	7,649	(38°35′36″N 75°18′45″E / 38.593428°N 75.312560°E / 38.593428; 75.312560 (Kongur))	Kongur Shan	China
Kongur Jiubie (Kungur Tjube Tagh)	7,530	(38°36′57″N 75°11′45″E / 38.615833°N 75.195833°E / 38.615833; 75.195833 (Kungur Tjube Tagh))	Kongur Shan	China
Muztagh Ata	7,509	(38°16′33″N 75°06′58″E / 38.275855°N 75.1161°E / 38.275855; 75.1161 (Muztagata))	Muztagh Ata Massif	China
Ismoil Somoni Peak (formerly Communism Peak, Stalin Peak)	7,495	(38°56′36″N 72°00′57″E / 38.943422°N 72.015803°E / 38.943422; 72.015803 (Ismoil Somoni Peak))	Academy of Sciences Range	Tajikistan
Lenin Peak (new name: Abu Ali Ibn Sino Peak; formerly Kaufmann Peak)	7,134	(39°20′37″N 72°52′39″E / 39.343724°N 72.877536°E / 39.343724; 72.877536 (Pik Lenin))	Trans-Alay Range	Tajikistan,  Kyrgyzstan
Peak Korzhenevskaya	7,105	(39°03′26″N 72°00′35″E / 39.057317°N 72.00983°E / 39.057317; 72.00983 (Peak Korzhenevskaya))	Academy of Sciences Range	Tajikistan
Independence Peak (also Qullai Istiqlol, formerly Revolution Peak, Dreispitz)	6,940	(38°30′36″N 72°21′15″E / 38.51°N 72.354167°E / 38.51; 72.354167 (Independence Peak))	Yazgulem Range	Tajikistan
Russia Peak	6,875	(38°53′46″N 72°01′44″E / 38.896°N 72.029°E / 38.896; 72.029 (Russia Peak))	Academy of Sciences Range	Tajikistan
Moscow Peak	6,785	(38°56′55″N 71°50′04″E / 38.948563°N 71.8344°E / 38.948563; 71.8344 (Moscow Peak))	Peter I Range	Tajikistan
Karl Marx Peak	6,726	(37°09′45″N 72°28′54″E / 37.1625°N 72.481667°E / 37.1625; 72.481667 (Karl Marx Peak))	Shakhdara Range	Tajikistan
Gora Kurumdy	6,614	(39°27′21″N 73°34′01″E / 39.455812°N 73.566978°E / 39.455812; 73.566978 (Gora Kurumdy))	Trans-Alay Range	Tajikistan,  Kyrgyzstan
Mount Garmo	6,595	(38°48′39″N 72°04′20″E / 38.810955°N 72.072344°E / 38.810955; 72.072344 (Mount Garmo))	Academy of Sciences Range	Tajikistan
Engels Peak	6,510	(37°10′18″N 72°31′22″E / 37.171671°N 72.522898°E / 37.171671; 72.522898 (Engels Peak))	Shakhdara Range	Tajikistan
Kohi Pamir	6,320	(37°09′N 73°13′E / 37.15°N 73.21°E / 37.15; 73.21 (Koh-e Pamir))	Wakhan Range	Afghanistan
Peak of the Soviet Officers	6,233	(38°25′26″N 73°18′07″E / 38.424°N 73.302°E / 38.424; 73.302 (Peak of the Soviet Officers))	Muzkol Range	Tajikistan
Mayakovskiy Peak	6,095	(37°01′16″N 71°42′54″E / 37.021092°N 71.715138°E / 37.021092; 71.715138 (Mayakovskiy Peak))	Shakhdara Range	Tajikistan
Patkhor Peak	6,083	(37°53′21″N 72°11′21″E / 37.889167°N 72.189167°E / 37.889167; 72.189167 (Patkhor Peak))	Rushan Range	Tajikistan
Leipzig Peak	5,725	(39°20′53″N 72°28′37″E / 39.348°N 72.477°E / 39.348; 72.477 (Leipzig Peak))	Trans-Alay Range	Tajikistan,  Kyrgyzstan
Skalisty Peak (Schugnan Range)	5,707	(37°36′02″N 72°13′37″E / 37.6005°N 72.227°E / 37.6005; 72.227 (Skalisty Peak))	Schugnan Range	Tajikistan
Kysyldangi Peak	5,704	(37°24′02″N 72°50′37″E / 37.4006°N 72.8435°E / 37.4006; 72.8435 (Kysyldangi Peak))	Southern Alitschur Range	Tajikistan

Remark: The summits of the Kongur and Muztagata Group are in some sources counted as part of the Kunlun, which would make Pik Ismoil Somoni the highest summit of the Pamir.

Glaciers

There are many

Covered in snow during most of the year, the Pamirs have long and bitterly cold winters, and short, cool summers, which equals an ET (tundra climate) according to Köppen climate classification (EF above the snow line). Annual precipitation is about 130 mm (5 in), which supports grasslands but few trees.

Paleoclimatology during the Ice Age

The East-Pamir, in the centre of which the massifs of Mustagh Ata (7620 m) and Kongur Tagh (Qungur Shan, 7578, 7628 or 7830 m) are situated, shows from the western margin of the Tarim Basin an east–west extension of c. 200 km. Its north–south extension from King Ata Tagh up to the northwest Kunlun foothills amounts to c.170 km. Whilst the up to 21 km long current valley glaciers are restricted to mountain massifs exceeding 5600 m in height, during the last glacial period the glacier ice covered the high plateau with its set-up highland relief, continuing west of Mustagh Ata and Kongur. From this glacier area an outlet glacier has flowed down to the north-east through the Gez valley up to c.1850 m asl (meters above sea level) and thus as far as to the margin of the Tarim basin. This outlet glacier received inflow from the Kaiayayilak glacier from the Kongur north flank. From the north-adjacent Kara Bak Tor (Chakragil, c. 6800 or 6694 m) massif, the Oytag valley glacier in the same exposition flowed also down up to c. 1850 m asl. At glacial times the glacier snowline (ELA^[C]) as altitude limit between glacier nourishing area and ablation zone, was about 820 to 1250 metres lower than it is today.^[13][14] Under the condition of comparable proportions of precipitation there results from this a glacial depression of temperature of at least 5 to 7.5 °C.

Economy

Coal is mined in the west, though sheep herding in upper meadowlands is the primary source of income for the region.

Exploration

The

In 1928 the last blank areas around the

Discoveries

In the early 1980s, a deposit of gemstone-quality clinohumite was discovered in the Pamir Mountains. It was the only such deposit known until the discovery of gem-quality material in the Taymyr region of Siberia, in 2000.

The earliest known evidence of human cannabis use was found in tombs at the Jirzankal Cemetery.^[15]

Transport

The

Strategic position

Historically, the Pamir Mountains were considered a strategic trade route between

• Tajik National Park
• Pamir languages
• Pamiris
• List of mountain ranges
• List of highest mountains
• Soviet Central Asia
• Central Asia
• Mount Imeon
• Ak-Baital Pass
• China–Tajikistan border
• Karachukar Valley

Notes

References

Further reading

• Leitner, G. W. (1890). Dardistan in 1866, 1886 and 1893: Being an Account of the History, Religions, Customs, Legends, Fables and Songs of Gilgit, Chilas, Kandia (Gabrial) Yasin, Chitral, Hunza, Nagyr and other parts of the Hindukush. With a supplement to the second edition of The Hunza and Nagyr Handbook. And an Epitome of Part III of the author's “The Languages and Races of Dardistan”. First Reprint 1978. Manjusri Publishing House, New Delhi.
• Murray, Charles (1894). The Pamirs; being a narrative of a year's expedition on horseback and on foot through Kashmir, western Tibet, Chinese Tartary, and Russian Central Asia. J. Murray. (Vol. I and II)
• ISBN 1-4021-3090-2
  (hbk).
• Wood, John, (1872). A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus. With an essay on the Geography of the Valley of the Oxus by Colonel Henry Yule. London: John Murray.
• Gordon, T. E. (1876). The Roof of the World: Being the Narrative of a Journey over the high plateau of Tibet to the Russian Frontier and the Oxus sources on Pamir. Edinburgh. Edmonston and Douglas. Reprint by Ch’eng Wen Publishing Company. Taipei. 1971.
• Cobbold, Ralph Patteson (1900). Innermost Asia: travel & sport in the Pamirs. W. Heinemann.
• Strong, Anna Louise. (1930). The Road to the Grey Pamir. Robert M. McBride & Co., New York.
• Toynbee, Arnold J. (1961). Between Oxus and Jumna. London. Oxford University Press.
• Slesser, Malcolm (1964). Red Peak: A Personal Account of the British-Soviet Expedition. Coward McCann.
• Wang, Miao (1983). From the Pamirs to Beijing : tracing Marco Polo's northern route. HK China Tourism Press.
• Tilman, H. W. (1983). "Two Mountains and a River" part of The Severn Mountain Travel Books. Diadem, London.
• Waugh, Daniel C. (1999). "The ‘Mysterious and Terrible Karatash Gorges’: Notes and Documents on the Explorations by Stein and Skrine." The Geographical Journal, Vol. 165, No. 3. (Nov., 1999), pp. 306–320.
• Horsman, S. (2002). Peaks, Politics and Purges: the First Ascent of Pik Stalin in Douglas, E. (ed.) Alpine Journal 2002 (Volume 107), The Alpine Club & Ernest Press, London, pp 199–206.
• Gecko-Maps (2004). The Pamirs. 1:500.000 – A tourist map of Gorno-Badkshan-Tajikistan and background information on the region. Verlag "Gecko-Maps", Switzerland (
  ISBN 3-906593-35-5
  )
• Dagiev, Dagikhudo, and Carole Faucher, eds. (2018). Identity, History and Trans-nationality in Central Asia: The Mountain Communities of Pamir. Routledge.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pamir Mountains.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Pamirs.

• Life in Afghanistan's Pamir mountains
• Information and photos
• Afghan's Little Pamir – photos of the life of ethnic Kyrgyz (Archive)