PAMIRS

The Kunlun and Pamir mountain ranges. also called Pamir, highland region of Central Asia. The Pamir mountain area centres on the nodal orogenic uplift known as the Pamir Knot, from which several south-central Asian mountain ranges radiate; these include the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram Range, the Kunlun Mountains, and the Tien Shan. Most of the Pamirs lie within Tajikistan, but the fringes penetrate Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and Kyrgyzstan. The core is situated in the highlands of Tajikistan with the highest mountains in the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous oblast (province). Kyrgyz mosque in the Pamirs, western Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, China. The word pamir in the local Turkic language denotes the high undulating grasslands that are a feature of the eastern portion of the mountains, especially where they abut Afghanistan and China. Deep river valleys mark the boundaries of the Pamirs in the north beyond the ridges of the Trans-Alay Range, and the Vakhan region (Wakhan Corridor) of Afghanistan defines the southern extent. The Sarykol pamir in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang in western China bounds the eastern margin, and a series of southwestern-aligned valleys that eventually drain into the Vakhsh and Panj rivers serrate the western boundary. also called Pamir, highland region of central Asia, centred in the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous oblast (province) of Tajikistan. The Pamirs include a combination of east-west and north-south ranges, with the former predominating. The highland covers an area of approximately 3,250 square miles (8,400 square km), bounded on the north by the Trans-Alay Range; on the east by the Sarykol Range, which forms the border between China and Tajikistan; on the south by Lake Zorkul (Sari Qul), the Pamir River, and the source of the Panj River bordering Afghanistan; and on the west by the north-south segment of the Panj valley. In the eastern Pamirs, rounded mountain ranges of medium relief rise from a high foundation and are separated by wide, flat-bottomed valleys. Peaks average 20,000 feet (6,100 m) or more above sea level, but their relative heights above their foundations do not generally exceed 3,300 to 5,900 feet (1,000 to 1,800 m). In the western Pamirs, however, the relief is extreme and sharply disjointed, alternating between low ranges and alpine ridges capped by glaciers and cut by deep, narrow ravines with high, rapid rivers. Communism Peak in the Academy of Sciences Range rises in the northwest to 24,590 feet (7,495 m), the highest point in the system as well as in Tajikistan. The majority of the region's rivers, most notably the Panj and the Pamir, drain toward the basin of the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River), which flows into the Aral Sea; a few rivers contribute their waters to the Tarim Basin. The climate of the Pamirs is arid and continental, characterized by very low amounts of precipitation and snow coverage and great variations in temperature. These climatic features are more pronounced in the eastern ranges, and, as a result, only low-growing plants survive the severe conditions of the cold, high mountain desert. The vegetation of the western ranges is richer, especially along the river valleys at lower elevations, where dense willow, birch, and poplar forests grow. Among the sparse wildlife are the arkhar (a mountain sheep) and the kiik (a mountain goat). In the sparsely populated Pamirs area, which has an average density of only a few persons per square mile, about nine-tenths of the inhabitants are Tajiks, who live in the western Pamirs; in the eastern Pamirs live the Kyrgyz. Nearly all inhabitants engage in subsistence agriculture and raise sheep and goats; in the western valleys cotton and other crops are grown. Motor-vehicle tracks, some of which follow ancient caravan routes through mountain passes to China and Afghanistan, reach most areas. Industry in the Pamirs includes several dams (among them Roghun and Norak) and hydroelectric-power stations; a few antimony, mercury, and silver mines in the west; and brown coal and salt mines in the east. Additional reading For the Pamirs, T.E. Gordon, The Roof of the World: Being a Narrative of a Journey Over the High Plateau of Tibet to the Russian Frontier and the Oxus Sources on Pamir (1876, reprinted 1971), surveys the area before the setting of boundaries. Ole Olufsen, Through the Unknown Pamirs: The Second Danish Pamir Expedition, 189899 (1904, reprinted 1969), describes the last European scientific expedition to the Pamirs before they were closed to foreign scientific expeditions for 90 years. N.S. Ginzburg, A Microgeography of Settlement in the Pamir Highlands, Soviet Geography, 27(6):398434 (1986), examines both the abandoned and currently populated settlements in the Pamirs in what was then the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in the U.S.S.R. (now in Tajikistan). V.V. Ginzburg, Gornye tadzhiki (1937), is a classic work of anthropology of the mountain Tajik of Karatigan and Darvaz. Isidor Levin (ed.), Mrchen vom Dach der Welt (1986), is a collection of German translations of folk tales of the Pamir peoples, illustrating their traditions. Nigel John Roger Allan