Photos

Silkroad travels: Pamir
Out again in the great empty space of the Pamir plateau. We are climbing the Akbaital kotali (=pass), 4656 m asl. The mountain peaks to the right mark the border to the Xing Jiang province of China, also called Chinese Turkestan.

To the left you notice the iron-bearing mountain. This recalls a description of the Pamir by a Chinese Buddhist monk, Hsüan Tsang, who started an 12-year exploration of the Silkroad in 630 AD. He travelled from central China to Kashgar to Pamir, Hindukush, Balck, Bamian, Jalalabad, Kashmir. He described the Pamir as an "absolutely terrible high region, with steep paths, gorges, dangerous passages and iron coloured mountain ranges of impressive height" (from: Felipe Fernández, 2006. Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration. W. W. Norton, London).