Pamir Mountains

The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia and South Asia. They are located where several other big mountain ranges meet, including the Tian Shan, the Karakoram, the Kunlun, the Hindu Kush, and the Himalayas. Because of this, the Pamirs are among the highest mountains in the world.

Most of the Pamir Mountains are in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan. They stretch across parts of four countries. To the south, they are close to Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor, and to the north they connect with the Alay Valley in Kyrgyzstan. To the east, they reach toward China.

Since the Victorian era, people have called the Pamirs the "Roof of the World", a name that comes from Persian. The Amu Darya river begins in the Pamir Mountains, and the Helmand River also starts nearby.

Names and etymology

In other languages

The Pamir Mountains are home to many different cultures and languages, and they have many names.

In Indo-European languages, the mountains are called:

• Pomīr/Pomer/Pomīr Kūen/Pomer Kūen in Shughni;
• Памир/Памирские горы/Горные вершины Памира Pamir/Pamirskiye gory/Gornye vershiny Pamira in Russian;
• پامیر غرونه Pāmīr Ghrūna in Pashto;
• رشته کوه‌های پامیر, Ришта Кӯҳҳои Помир, Rishta Kūhhoi Pomir in Tajik;
• پامیر کوهستان Pāmīr Kohistān in Urdu;
• सुमेरु Sumeru in Sanskrit.^{[citation needed]}

In Turkic languages, they are called:

• پامىر توولورۇ, Памир Тоолору, Pamir Tooloru in Kyrgyz;
• پامىر ئېگىزلىكى, Pamir Ëgizliki, Памир Егизлики in Uyghur.^{[citation needed]}

In Old and Middle Chinese, the mountains were called "Onion Range" (simplified Chinese: 葱岭; traditional Chinese: 蔥嶺; pinyin: Cōnglǐng; Wade–Giles: Ts'ung-ling), named after the wild onions that grow there. In the Dungan dialect of Mandarin, it is written Памир / Цунлин in the Cyrillic alphabet, and in Xiao'erjing it is written پَامِعَر / ڞوْلٍْ. The name "Pamir" is used more commonly in Modern Chinese and loaned as 帕米尔 / 帕米爾 Pàmǐ'ěr.

Geological term

The word "pamir" is also a geological term. It describes a flat area or U-shaped valley surrounded by mountains. This happens when a glacier or ice field melts, leaving a rocky plain. Over time, erosion changes this into normal valleys. This type of land is found in parts of the east and north of the Wakhan, and in the east and south of Gorno-Badakhshan, unlike the valleys and gorges in the west. Pamirs are often used as places for animals to rest during the summer.

The Great Pamir is near Lake Zorkul. The Little Pamir is east of this, in the far east of Wakhan. The Taghdumbash Pamir lies 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, Tajikistan. The Khargush Pamir is south of Lake Karakul. There are several others.

The Pamir River is in the south-west of the Pamirs.

Geography

The Pamir Mountains are a high mountain range in Central Asia and South Asia. They meet with other famous mountain ranges like the Tian Shan, the Karakoram, the Kunlun, the Hindu Kush, and the Himalayas. These mountains are among the tallest in the world.

Some of the highest peaks in the Pamirs include Ismoil Somoni Peak, which rises to 7,495 meters, Ibn Sina Peak at 7,134 meters, and Peak Korzhenevskaya at 7,105 meters. In the eastern part, Kongur Tagh is the tallest at 7,649 meters.

The Pamir Mountains have many glaciers. The Vanch-Yakh Glacier is the longest in the former USSR, stretching about 77 kilometers. About 10% of the Pamirs are covered in glaciers, though some are shrinking quickly.

The climate here is very cold, with long, harsh winters and short, cool summers. The area is snowy most of the year and has little rainfall, making it a grassy but treeless landscape.

Economy

Coal is mined in the western part of the Pamir Mountains. However, the main way people make money there is by raising sheep in the high meadows.

Exploration

The Pamir Mountains have a long history of exploration and trade. Valuable blue stone called lapis lazuli, found in ancient Egyptian tombs, may have come from this region. Many travelers and explorers visited the area over the centuries, including famous figures like Marco Polo.

In the 1800s, many explorers from Russia and Britain journeyed through the Pamirs to map and study the region. Russian expeditions helped chart the mountains, and they later set up bases for protection. The last unmapped areas were finally explored in 1928 by a German-Soviet team.

Discoveries

In the early 1980s, people found a special kind of gemstone called clinohumite in the Pamir Mountains. This was the only place where such beautiful gemstones were found until another discovery in the Taymyr region of Siberia in the year 2000.

Scientists also found the oldest proof that people used cannabis in tombs at a place called the Jirzankal Cemetery.

Transport

The Pamir Highway is the world's second highest international road. It runs from Dushanbe in Tajikistan to Osh in Kyrgyzstan, passing through the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province. This road is the main supply route for the area. Long ago, the Great Silk Road also crossed many of the Pamir Mountain ranges.

Tourism

In December 2009, the New York Times wrote about tourism chances in the Pamir area of Tajikistan. The year 2013 was the best year ever for tourism there, and tourism keeps growing fast as an important part of the local economy.

Strategic position

The Pamir Mountains have been an important trade route for a very long time. Long ago, traders used these mountains to travel between places like Kashgar and Kokand on the Northern Silk Road. This ancient path connected Chang'an in China all the way to Parthia.

In more recent times, the Pamir Mountains have seen many changes. They were the scene of the Tajikistan Civil War and had border disagreements between China and the Soviet Union. Different countries, including the US, Russia, and India, set up military bases there. Today, there is new interest in developing trade routes and exploring resources in the area. The government of China says it has solved most of its old border issues with its neighbors.

Religious symbolism

Some researchers think the Pamir Mountains might be linked to Mount Meru, a very special mountain in many religions. Mount Meru is important in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It is seen as a sacred mountain with five peaks and is believed to be the center of everything in the physical world, the world of ideas, and the spiritual world.