Pamir Mountains


The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia, South Asia, and East Asia, at the junction of the Himalayas with the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush, and Hindu Raj ranges. They are among the world's highest mountains.
The Pamir Mountains lie mostly in the Gorno-Badakhshan Province of Tajikistan. To the north, they join the Tian Shan mountains along the Alay Valley of Kyrgyzstan. To the south, they border the Hindu Kush mountains along Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor. To the east, they extend to the range that includes China's Kongur Tagh, in the "Eastern Pamirs", separated by the Yarkand valley from the Kunlun Mountains.

Name and etymology

Since Victorian times, they have been known as the "Roof of the World", presumably a translation from Persian.

Names

In other languages they are called: پامیر غرونه ، Pamir Ghroona; Памир тоолору, Pamir Tooloru, پامىر توولورۇ; Rešte Kuhhâ-ye Pâmir; Rishta Köhhoyi Pomir; پامىر ئېگىزلىكى, Pamir Ëzgizliki, Памир Езгизлики; सुमेरु, Sumēru; پامیر کوهستان, Pamir Kuhestan; or "Onion Range" ; Памир or Цунлин, written in Xiao'erjing: پَامِعَر or ڞوْلٍْ. The name "Pamir" is used more commonly in Modern Chinese and loaned as.

"A pamir"

According to Middleton and Thomas, "pamir" is a geological term. A pamir is a flat plateau or U-shaped valley surrounded by mountains. It forms when a glacier or ice field melts leaving a rocky plain. A pamir lasts until erosion forms soil and cuts down normal valleys. This type of terrain is found in the east and north of the Wakhan, and the east and south of Gorno-Badakhshan, as opposed to the valleys and gorges of the west. Pamirs are used for summer pasture.
The Great Pamir is around Lake Zorkul. The Little Pamir is east of this in the far east of Wakhan. The Taghdumbash Pamir is between Tashkurgan and the Wakhan west of the Karakoram Highway. The Alichur Pamir is around Yashil Kul on the Gunt River. The Sarez Pamir is around the town of Murghab. The Khargush Pamir is south of Lake Karakul. There are several others.
The Pamir River is in the south-west of the Pamirs.

Geography

Mountain

The three highest mountains in the Pamirs core are Ismoil Somoni Peak, ; Ibn Sina Peak, ; and Peak Korzhenevskaya,. In the Eastern Pamirs, China's Kongur Tagh is the highest at.
Among the significant peaks of the Pamir Mountains are the following:
NameHeight
in meters		Coord.Sub-rangeCountry
Kongur 7,649Kongur ShanChina
Kongur Jiubie 7,530Kongur ShanChina
Muztagh Ata7,509Muztagh Ata MassifChina
Ismoil Somoni Peak 7,495Academy of Sciences RangeTajikistan
Lenin Peak 7,134Trans-Alay RangeTajikistan, Kyrgyzstan
Peak Korzhenevskaya7,105Academy of Sciences RangeTajikistan
Independence Peak 6,940Yazgulem RangeTajikistan
Russia Peak6,875Academy of Sciences RangeTajikistan
Moscow Peak6,785Peter I RangeTajikistan
Karl Marx Peak6,726Shakhdara RangeTajikistan
Gora Kurumdy6,614Trans-Alay RangeTajikistan, Kyrgyzstan
Mount Garmo6,595Academy of Sciences RangeTajikistan
Engels Peak6,510Shakhdara RangeTajikistan
Koh-e Pamir6,320Wachan RangeAfghanistan
Peak of the Soviet Officers6,233Muskol RangeTajikistan
Mayakovskiy Peak6,095Shakhdara RangeTajikistan
Patkhor Peak6,083Rushan RangeTajikistan
Leipzig Peak5,725Trans-Alay RangeTajikistan, Kyrgyzstan
Pik Skalisty5,707Schugnan RangeTajikistan
Kysyldangi Peak5,704Southern Alitschur RangeTajikistan

Remark: The summits of the Kongur and Muztagata Group are in some sources counted as part of the Kunlun, which would make Pik Ismoil Somoni the highest summit of the Pamir.

Glaciers

There are many glaciers in the Pamir Mountains, including the long Fedchenko Glacier, the longest in the former USSR and the longest glacier outside the polar regions. Approximately 12,500 km² of the Pamirs are glaciated. Glaciers in the Southern Pamirs are retreating rapidly. Ten percent of annual runoff is supposed to originate from retreating glaciers in the Southern Pamirs. In the North-Western Pamirs, glaciers have almost stable mass balances.

Climate

Covered in snow throughout the year, the Pamirs have long and bitterly cold winters, and short, cool summers. Annual precipitation is about, which supports grasslands but few trees.

Paleoclimatology during the Ice Age

The East-Pamir, in the centre of which the massifs of Mustagh Ata and Kongur Tagh are situated, shows from the western margin of the Tarim Basin an east-west extension of c. 200 km. Its north-south extension from King Ata Tagh up to the northwest Kunlun foothills amounts to c.170 km. Whilst the up to 21 km long current valley glaciers are restricted to mountain massifs exceeding 5600 m in height, during the last glacial period the glacier ice covered the high plateau with its set-up highland relief, continuing west of Mustagh Ata and Kongur. From this glacier area an outlet glacier has flowed down to the north-east through the Gez valley up to c.1850 m asl and thus as far as to the margin of the Tarim basin. This outlet glacier received inflow from the Kaiayayilak glacier from the Kongur north flank. From the north-adjacent Kara Bak Tor massif, the Oytag valley glacier in the same exposition flowed also down up to c. 1850 m asl. At glacial times the glacier snowline
as altitude limit between glacier nourishing area and ablation zone, was about 820 to 1250 metres lower than it is today. Under the condition of comparable proportions of precipitation there results from this a glacial depression of temperature of at least 5 to 7.5 °C.

Economy

is mined in the west, though sheep herding in upper meadowlands is the primary source of income for the region.

Exploration

Peak, which was considered to be the highest unreached peak in the territory of former Soviet Union at the time
The lapis lazuli found in Egyptian tombs is thought to come from the Pamir area in Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. About 138 BC Zhang Qian reached the Fergana Valley northwest of the Pamirs. Ptolemy vaguely describes a trade route through the area. From about 600 AD, Buddhist pilgrims travelled on both sides of the Pamirs to reach India from China. In 747 a Tang army was on the Wakhan River. There are various Arab and Chinese reports. Marco Polo may have travelled along the Panj River. In 1602 Bento de Goes travelled from Kabul to Yarkand and left a meager report on the Pamirs. In 1838 Lieutenant John Wood reached the headwaters of the Pamir River. From about 1868 to 1880, a number of Indians in the British service secretly explored the Panj area. In 1873 the British and Russians agreed to an Afghan frontier along the Panj River. From 1871 to around 1893 several Russian military-scientific expeditions mapped out most of the Pamirs. Several local groups asked for Russian protection from Afghan raiders. The Russians were followed by a number of non-Russians including Ney Elias, George Littledale, the Earl of Dunmore, Wilhelm Filchner and Lord Curzon who was probably the first to reach the Wakhan source of the Oxus River. In 1891 the Russians informed Francis Younghusband that he was on their territory and later escorted a Lieutenant Davidson out of the area. In 1892 a battalion of Russians under Mikhail Ionov entered the area and camped near the present Murghab. In 1893 they built a proper fort there. In 1895 their base was moved to Khorog facing the Afghans.
In 1928 the last blank areas around the Fedchenko Glacier were mapped out by a German-Soviet expedition under Willi Rickmer Rickmers.

Discoveries

In the early 1980s, a deposit of gemstone-quality clinohumite was discovered in the Pamir Mountains. It was the only such deposit known until the discovery of gem-quality material in the Taymyr region of Siberia, in 2000.

Transport

The Pamir Highway, the world's second highest international road, runs from Dushanbe in Tajikistan to Osh in Kyrgyzstan through the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, and is the isolated region's main supply route. The Great Silk Road crossed a number of Pamir Mountain ranges.

Tourism

In December 2009, the New York Times featured articles on the possibilities for tourism in the Pamir area of Tajikistan. 2013 proved to be the most successful year ever for tourism in the region and tourism development continues to be the fastest growing economic sector. The META website provides an excellent repository of tourism related resources for the Eastern Pamir region.

Strategic position

Historically, the Pamir Mountains were considered a strategic trade route between Kashgar and Kokand on the Northern Silk Road, a prehistoric trackway, and have been subject to numerous territorial conquests. The Northern Silk Road connected the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an over the Pamir Mountains towards the west to emerge in Kashgar before linking to ancient Parthia. In the 20th century, they have been the setting for Tajikistan Civil War, border disputes between China and Soviet Union, establishment of US, Russian, and Indian military bases, and renewed interest in trade development and resource exploration. China has since resolved most of those disputes with Central Asian countries.

Religion

Some researchers identify the Pamirs with the Mount Meru or Sumeru. The Mount Meru is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.