Photos

Silk Road travel:
we finally arrived at the town of Khorog or Khorug, the capital of Kuhiston-i Badakhshan autonomous province ( the province has a size of 63'000 km2 and 200'000 inhabitants). The town has a population of 30'000 and is situated 2,200 m above sea level at the confluence of the Gunt with the Panj River near the border with Afghanistan. It has a tiny airport and the Pamir highway passes through it (info from Wikipedia).

The bus stop speaks of times bygone, when the local people were still identifying with the Soviet Union and were proud of the nation's accomplishments to which they were a part. It's the stop besides the hospital and the inscription in Russian to the left translates as: "Your health is in your hands" (thanks Roland for translating).

Today no bus stops here, public service is wanting. The town had already been neglected during Soviet times, but after the breakup of the Soviet Union it became evident how much the remote, mountaineous Badakhshan depends on subsidies. Today foreign aid, mainly from the Aga Khan foundation, helps to build schools, roads, hospitals, sewers. The original "raison d'être" for Khorog was military: two opposite imperial ambitions, that of Britain and that of zsarist Russia were clashing in the Pamir region. By negotiation in 1873 it was agreed that a demarchation line would follow the Panj river where Khorog is situated. Today this line separates Afghanistan from Tajikistan. I put Khorog on "Map:View" so you can (like me) try to track the geostrategic nonsense of three empires!