Basic facts about the Tajik Pamirs (Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast - GBAO):
Population: approx. 205,000
Surface area: approx. 64,000 square km. (nearly 50% of total surface area of Tajikistan and 1.5 times the size of Switzerland)
Arable land: 240 square km. (0.4% of the total)
The Western Pamirs (Darvaz, Vanj, Rushan, Shughnan - including the regional capital
Khorog - Roshtkala and Ishkashim districts, population approx. 190,000) are inhabited by people of Irano-European extraction.
The Eastern Pamirs (Murghab district, population approx. 15,000) are mainly inhabited by people of Kyrgyz (Turkic) extraction, although there is a significant minority in Murghab town originating from the Western Pamirs.
Human settlements between 1,200 and 3,500m
The Pamirs are very much "virgin territory" for tourism. Large tracts of the territory are uninhabited and, as in any mountain environment, weather and temperature are subject to sudden changes.
Gorno-Badakhshan offers:
· spectacular landscapes
· some of the highest mountains in the world: Pik Somoni / Communism (7,495m), Pik Lenin (7,134m), Pik Karl Marx (6,723m) and Pik Engels (6,510m) and the Fedchenko Glacier – one of the longest in the world (77km); from Murghab there are views of Mustagh Ata – “Father of Ice” (7,546m) just across the border in China
· traces of the Silk Route and other archaeological sites
The following itineraries are recommended:
· The Wakhan corridor, with views across the Pyandj and Pamir rivers to the peaks of the Hindu Kush in Pakistan; the Wakhan contains many traces of the multicultural history of the Silk Route and the spread of major religions (see also the section on Archaeology)
· The valleys of the Shokhdara and Pamir rivers; here, in beautiful natural surroundings, there are vestiges of the centuries-long struggle for control of the fertile lands of the Pamirs
· The Pamir Highway, the lifeline to markets in Kyrgyzstan (and, in future, China); this is the real Pamir: high plateau desert and multi-coloured rock formations resembling more a moonscape than mountains; this region used to be at the bottom of the sea and was pushed up by the geological phenomenon of continental drift and the clash of tectonic plates.
· The unspoilt and undiscovered beauty of Murgab, Rangkul, Madyan and Shaimak (Little Pamir), with the legendary Dragon Lake known to Chinese geographers
· The Bartang valley, the longest in Gorno-Badakhshan, with idyllic villages nestling against the valley walls and access to Lake Sarez.