KARAKORAM RANGE

The Hindu Kush and the Karakoram Range. Chinese (Wade-Giles) K'a-la-k'un-lun Shan, or (Pinyin) Karakorum Shan, great mountain system extending some 300 miles (500 kilometres) from the easternmost extension of Afghanistan in a southeasterly direction along the watershed between Central and South Asia. Found there are the greatest concentration of high mountains in the world and the longest glaciers outside the high latitudes. The borders of Tajikistan, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India all converge within the Karakoram system, giving this remote region great geopolitical significance. The name Kurra-koorrum, a rendering of the Turkic term for Black Rock or Black Mountain, appeared in early 19th-century English writings. Terraced fields of the Hunza River valley in the Karakoram Range, Pakistan. Chinese (Wade-Giles) K'a-la-k'un-lun Shan great mountain system of Central Asia extending approximately 300 miles (480 km) from easternmost Afghanistan southeastward into Jammu and Kashmir. The system occupies about 80,000 square miles (207,000 square km). The Karakorams consist of a group of parallel ranges with several spurs and are characterized by craggy peaks, steep slopes, and heavy glaciation. The range forms one of the highest mountain systems in the world, with an average height of about 20,000 feet (6,100 m). Four peaks exceed 26,000 feet (7,900 m) in elevation, the highest being K2 (Godwin-Austen) at 28,251 feet (8,611 m), the second highest peak in the world. The international boundaries of China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Tajikistan all converge within the highest mountains of the system. The Karakorams serve as a watershed for the basins of the Indus and Tarim rivers, whose principal sources are the melted waters of both seasonal and perpetual snows and glaciers. The regional climate in the Karakorams is for the most part semiarid and sharply continental. The southern slopes are exposed to the humidifying influence of the monsoons coming in from the Indian Ocean, but the northern slopes are extremely dry. Surrounded by a number of other very high mountain ranges with immense glaciers, the Karakorams are virtually inaccessible. Mountain passes are situated at elevations of about 16,000 feet (about 4,900 m) and are open only five or six months of the year. The completion of the Karakoram Highway in 1978 improved transportation in the region. Owing to severe natural conditions, the mountain population is very sparse. In the south the inhabitants are concentrated mainly in a few small towns; while on the northern slope Tibetan farmers live in villages at elevations up to 14,800 feet (4,500 m). Most engage in subsistence agriculture and livestock raising. Wild animals of the region include the snow leopard, wild yak, and Tibetan antelope. Additional reading Hermann de Schlagintweit, Adolphe de Schlagintweit, and Robert de Schlagintweit, Results of a Scientific Mission to India and High Asia, 4 vol. and atlas (186166), is an excellent account of a scientific exploration undertaken in 185458 in the Karakoram Range. A superb evaluation of science and research in the Karakorams is given in Kenneth Hewitt, European Science in High Asia: Geomorphology in the Karakoram, Himalaya to 1939, in Keith J. Tinkler (ed.), History of Geomorphology: From Hutton to Hack (1989), pp. 165203. Results of modern research in the area are surveyed in Edward Derbyshire and Lewis A. Owen (eds.), Quaternary of the Karakoram and Himalaya (1989); and K.J. Miller (ed.), The International Karakoram Project, 2 vol. (1984). Nigel J.R. Allan, Kashgar to Islamabad: The Impact of the Karakorum Highway on Mountain Society and Habitat, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 105(3):130141 (1989), discusses the transformation of Karakoram land use caused by construction of the Karakoram Highway. Nigel John Roger Allan