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

Much of the range lies in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan. Spanning the border parts of four countries, to the south, they border the Hindu Kush mountains along Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan Province and Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan regions 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", separated by the Yarkand valley from the Kunlun Mountains.

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

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:

  • in Shughni;
  • in Russian;
  • in Pashto;
  • , , in Tajik;
  • in Urdu;
  • in Sanskrit.

In Turkic languages, they are called:

  • , , in Kyrgyz;
  • , , in Uyghur.

In Old and Middle Chinese, they are referred as "Onion Range" (), which is named after the wild onions growing in the region; In the Dungan dialect of Mandarin, it is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, and in Xiao'erjing it is written / . The name "Pamir" is used more commonly in Modern Chinese and loaned as / '.

Geological term

According to Middleton and Thomas, "pamir" is also a geological term. and the east and south of Gorno-Badakhshan, as opposed to the valleys and gorges of the west. Pamirs are used for summer pasture. In the Eastern Pamirs, China's Kongur Tagh is the highest at .

Among the significant peaks of the Pamir Mountains are the following:

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right"

|-

!Native name(s) !! Translated name(s) !! Height<br /> in meters !! Coord. !! Sub-range !! Country

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /><br /><br /><br /></small>||Kongur (Kungur Tagh)|| 7,649 || () || Kongur Shan ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /><br /><br /></small>||Muztagh Ata|| 7,546 || () || Muztagh Ata Massif ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Kongur Jiubie (Kungur Tjube Tagh)|| 7,530 || () || Kongur Shan ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Ismoil Somoni Peak<br /> (formerly Communism Peak, Stalin Peak)|| 7,495 || () || Academy of Sciences Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /><br /></small>||Lenin Peak<br /> (new name: Abu Ali Ibn Sino Peak;<br /> formerly Kaufmann Peak)|| 7,134 || () || Trans-Alay Range || ,<br />

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Peak Ozodi<br /> (formerly Peak Korzhenevskoi) || 7,105 || () || Academy of Sciences Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Independence Peak<br /> (also Qullai Istiqlol,<br /> formerly Revolution Peak, Dreispitz)|| 6,940 || () || Yazgulem Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Russia Peak|| 6,875 || () || Academy of Sciences Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Moscow Peak|| 6,785 || () || Peter I Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Karl Marx Peak|| 6,723 || () || Shakhdara Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Kurumdy Mountain|| 6,614 || () || Trans-Alay Range || ,<br />

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Mount Garmo|| 6,595 || () || Academy of Sciences Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Engels Peak|| 6,510 || () || Shakhdara Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small>Коҳи Памир</small>||Kohi Pamir|| 6,320 || () || Wakhan Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small>Пик советских офицеров</small>||Peak of the Soviet Officers|| 6,233 || () || Muzkol Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Mayakovsky Peak|| 6,096 || () || Shakhdara Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small><br /></small>||Patkhor Peak|| 6,083 || () || Rushan Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small>Пик Лейпциг</small>||Leipzig Peak|| 5,725 || () || Trans-Alay Range || ,<br />

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small>Пик Скалистый</small>||Skalisty Peak (Schugnan Range)||| 5,707 || () || Schugnan Range ||

|-

|style="text-align:left" |<small>Кызылдангы</small>||Kysyldangi Peak|| 5,704 || () || Southern Alitschur Range ||

|}

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

thumb|Pamir Mountains from an airplane

Glaciers

There are many glaciers in the Pamir Mountains, including the long Vanch-Yakh Glacier, the longest in the former USSR and the longest glacier outside the polar regions. Approximately 12,500&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (ca. 10%) of the Pamirs are glaciated. Glaciers in the Southern Pamirs are retreating rapidly. Ten percent of annual runoff is supposed to originate from retreating glaciers in the Southern Pamirs.) as altitude limit between glacier nourishing area and ablation zone, was about 820 to 1250 metres lower than it is today. Under the condition of comparable proportions of precipitation there results from this a glacial depression of temperature of at least 5 to 7.5&nbsp;°C.

Economy

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

Exploration

thumb|left|Expedition in 1982 to [[Tartu Ülikool 350 Peak, which was considered to be the highest unreached peak in the territory of former Soviet Union at the time.]]

The lapis lazuli found in Egyptian tombs is thought to come from the Pamir area in Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. About 138 BCE Zhang Qian reached the Fergana Valley northwest of the Pamirs. Ptolemy vaguely describes a trade route through the area. From about 600 CE, Buddhist pilgrims travelled on both sides of the Pamirs to reach India from China. In 747 a Tang army was on the Wakhan River. There are various Arab and Chinese reports. Marco Polo may have travelled along the Panj River. In 1602, Bento de Goes travelled from Kabul to Yarkand and left a meager report on the Pamirs. In 1838, Lieutenant John Wood reached the headwaters of the Pamir River. From about 1868 to 1880, a number of Indians in the British service secretly explored the Panj area. In 1873, the British and Russians agreed to an Afghan frontier along the Panj River. From 1871 to around 1893, several Russian military-scientific expeditions mapped out most of the Pamirs (Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko, Nikolai Severtzov, Captain Dmitry Putyata and others. Later came Nikolai Korzhenevskiy). Several local groups asked for Russian protection from Afghan raiders. The Russians were followed by a number of non-Russians including Ney Elias, George Littledale, the Earl of Dunmore, Wilhelm Filchner and Lord Curzon who was probably the first to reach the Wakhan source of the Oxus River. In 1891, the Russians informed Francis Younghusband that he was on their territory and later escorted a Lieutenant Davidson out of the area ('Pamir Incident'). In 1892, a battalion of Russians under Mikhail Ionov entered the area and camped near the present Murghab. In 1893 they built a proper fort there (Pamirskiy Post). In 1895 their base was moved to Khorog facing the Afghans.

In 1928, the last blank areas around the Fedchenko Glacier were mapped by the German-Soviet Alay-Pamir Expedition under .

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.

Transport

thumb|[[Pamir Highway]]

The Pamir Highway, the world's second highest international road, runs from Dushanbe in Tajikistan to Osh in Kyrgyzstan through the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, and is the isolated region's main supply route. The Great Silk Road crossed a number of Pamir Mountain ranges.

Tourism

In December 2009, the New York Times featured articles on the possibilities for tourism in the Pamir area of Tajikistan. In the 20th century, these mountains have been the setting for the Tajikistan Civil War, border disputes between China and the Soviet Union, establishment of military bases by the US, Russia, and India, The Chinese government says it has resolved most of the disputes it had with Central Asian countries.

Religious symbolism

Some researchers identify the Pamirs with the Mount Meru or Sumeru. The Mount Meru is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hinduism, Buddhist and Jain, and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.

See also

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

Notes

References

Further reading

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  • 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)
  • Curzon, George Nathaniel. (1896). The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus. Royal Geographical Society, London. Reprint: Elibron Classics Series, Adamant Media Corporation. 2005. (pbk; (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 ()
  • Dagiev, Dagikhudo, and Carole Faucher, eds. (2018). Identity, History and Trans-nationality in Central Asia: The Mountain Communities of Pamir. Routledge.
  • Life in Afghanistan's Pamir mountains
  • Information and photos
  • Afghan's Little Pamir – photos of the life of ethnic Kyrgyz (Archive)