Photos

Silkroad travels: Kargush pass

We are there! We are on top of Kargush pass, 4344 m alt. At the same time we have reached the Pamir plateau. To the left you see the Hausibek freshwater lake. The horn is of Marco Polo wild sheep, Ovis ammon polii , a distinct race of the Argali (information from http://www.ultimateungulate.com). High altitude forces us to bicycle slowly but due to a gradual adaptation we have no other problems.

What Marco Polo said in his "Travels", written around 1299:
" ... And when he (the traveller, red.) is in this high place, he finds a plain between two mountains, with a lake from which flows a very fine river....There are great quantities of wild sheep of huge size. Their horns grow as much as six palms in length...This plain, whose name is Pamir, extends fully twelve day's journey. In all these twelve days there is no habitation or shelter."

You can check with "Map:View" how right Marco Polo is!

Technical stuff: On Pamir I used a UV filter with my Olympus compact camera. The picture was taken in JPG format, I increased contrast, reduced the picture size and sharpened in PS.