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 The Pamir-Trans-Alai ranges interrupt the vast old region of Turkestan in Central Asia, so that they separate rivers running E to the Takla Makan desert from those flowing W to the Aral Sea. Within this area the boundaries and divisions for modern states of Central Asia are greatly changed from those romanticized in history.

The name Pamir(s) has been given several attributions Commonly it is said that it applies to the long flat valleys dividing the principal ranges, some 10 to 15km wide and of great length. For our purposes the High Pamir is the NW Pamir of topographers. The northern limit is put at the Kyzyl Su (Red river) valley. usually called the great Alai valley, extending roughly E-W from the Chinese frontier to become part of the Surkhob/Vakhsh waters in 500km, near Dushanbe. The southern boundary is marked along the famous Wakhan corridor of Afghanistan, the great loop N described by the river Pianj (Oxus) confines the western approaches before it becomes the Amudaria, at the confluence with the Vakhsh. The high Pamir of this publication is delineated with a southern boundary along the successive valleys E-W of Kudara-Murgab-Bartang; the latter joins the Pianj loop at Rushan.

Omitted further S are several huge glaciated ranges. including the SW end of the Yazgulemski (Vudor 6132m. partly seen on our inset map), Rushanski (Patkhor 6080m), Muzkol (6233m). Alichurski (5850m). Shugnanski (5800m), Ishkashimski (Berga 6094m), Shakhdarinski (6723/6687m. see below), and the boundary chain of Selseh-ye Kohe Wakhan (6330m), mostly in Afghan territory. At the W entrance to the Wakhan corridor, the Shakhdarinski chain contains some of the most reputed (by the Russians) summits in the greater area of the Pamir. Among these are Karl Marx (6723m, Eugene Beletski. 1940). Peak Engels (6510m. M. Gvarliani. 1954). and Peak Tajikistan (6565/6505m, V. Savvon, 1962): these and neighboring peaks have been the subject of numerous traverses and technical routes of considerable interest.

In the N, the Trans-Alai (Zaalaiski) range marks the frontier between Kirgizstan (N) and Tajikistan (S). otherwise all the mountains are found in the latter. Coming down to the Muksu valley in the heart of the NW Pamir. the Fedchenko glacier, always remarked as the longest in the world outside Polar regions, has diminished in length in the last 100 years from 78 to 69km. (This suggests that the Siachen glacier in the Karakoram. at 72km in 1989, has displaced it). An estimated 127 lesser ice flows contribute to the parent stream The entire immense ice highway can be walked along without special problems right up to technically easy passes at its head. for parties with adequate expedition backup The next longest glacier is Grum-Grzhimailo. flowing for 36km off the Peak Revolution massif at the NE end of the Yazgulem chain into the upper Tanymas valley.