Photos

Silkroad travels: Pamir
Murghab kishlak (=village) is one of the few settlements in the Pamir. It's vocation is herding (the courts are used to fence animals in), border control and trade/tourism. From a sheperd summer settlement it had been transformed during Soviet times into a border town even if the uninhabited Chinese border was 40 to 100 km away. Today a new branch of the Silkroad passes here: the Kulma pass (4363 m ASL) is the recently opened checkpoint into China and Kashgar. Tourism brings a trickling of people every day in Summer.



In some houses water is still hauled up by hand from wells (see workshop extra); sewage water flows freely (see in the foreground). Electricity is brought from the far away by two thin wires on telephone poles, barely enough for one 10W lamp per household. When more is required, small gasoline driven generators produce electricity (see TV antennae). Still, the people smile and are friendly. In my next picture I will present the Guesthouse.