Photos

Silkroad travels: Wakhan
The Wakhan valley with the river Panj (called Wakhan further upstream). The view is from Zumudg upstream to the hidden Pik Karla Marksa (alt. 6723 m). And that's not the only German that has his natural memorial here: even more hidden in the picture you can guess the Pik Fridrik Engels. There is no guarantee that glory lasts forever whatever the monument: the Governement of Tajikistan is already reconsidering the names of important mountains. Pik Kommunizma (7495m) has been renamed Qullai Somoni. Sic transit... and so on.

By bicycling upstream we were getting closer (not that close) to the source of Oxus (=Amu Darya, =Panj; =Wakhan). The source was sought and found by a British expedition under George Curzon in 1889.