5 reasons to visit Central Asia’s Pamir Highway now
Glistening snow-capped peaks at every turn and the most hospitable people on the planet. Isn’t it time you treated yourself to a real adventure?
1. Riding on the Roof of the World
The Pamir Highway is so named because the heart of it cuts through Tajikistan’s High Pamirs, the third highest yet least explored mountain range on earth.
Not for nothing are the Pamirs known as the Bam-i-Dunya, the roof of the world: glistening snow-capped peakstower at every turn and the road slings you through gorges of terrifying verticality and over passes of dizzying altitude. Such topographic extremes make for thrilling riding, jaw-dropping scenery and views to make you weep.
2. Tajik and Kyrgyz hospitality
Nowhere else on earth does hospitality like Central Asia, and no one in Central Asia does hospitality like the Pamiris. Smiles as warm as a summer’s day beam at you from every weather-worn face and you ride, grinning, through villages of shrieking, waving, excitable children.
But it’s not just the children. Everyone, from bent old ladies leading their donkey in at dusk, to toothless men selling apricots in the shade, greets you with a cheery wave and a heart-lifting smile. It makes for a truly cockle-warming experience.
3. Following in the footsteps of the Silk Road
The Pamir Highway is dripping in history and legend, its valleys and passes witness to thousands of years of tumult, triumph and trade. You can almost hear the groans of the camel trains that bought rubies, silk and spices west along the Wakhan Corridor, and sense the ghosts of Alexander’s armies that once thundered east.
Magnificent 2000 year old fortresses stand like sentinels on mountaintops, crumbling Buddhist stupas keep watch over the valleys below and shamanic petroglyphs remind you of a time long gone. It adds a whole extra dimension to the ride.
