Uzbek border – Pamir Highway – Kyrgyzstan border – 7 days 1600 km
Intereresting for us:
Anzob Pass – a high mountain pass – 3.372 metres (11,062ft) ASL, with a weather observation station located at the pass top. It’s alternative to dangerous tunnel below the summit called Anzob Tunnel, or “The Tunnel of Death”, with a length of 5km. T
The road to the summit is gravel, dusty, bumpy and dangerous. he climb is a series of narrow zigzags, with some impressive drops to the valley below. the road is terrible for drivers who are prone to vertigo. It is very steep (20km averaging 7-8% in gradient), narrow, muddy and without a safety rail. In many places the road is bordered by a drop of hundreds of meters (many hundreds of feet) unprotected by guardrails.
Pamir Highway / M41, – an international road traversing the Pamir Mountains through Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. It is the only continuous route through the difficult terrain of the mountains and serves as the main supply route to Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. The route has been in use for millennia, as there are a limited number of viable routes through the high Pamir Mountains. The road formed one link of the ancient Silk Road trade route. M41 is the Soviet road number, but no road number is generally signposted along the road today, only destinations.
Osh – The oldest city in the Kyrgizstan with roots estimated to be more than 3000 years old. For centuries was known as center for silk production along the Silk Road, that was crossing Alay Mountains to reach Kashgar to the East. Sulayman Mountain – holy mountain and major place of Muslim and pre-Muslim pilgrimage. Sulayman (Solomon) is a prophet in the Qur’an, and the mountain contains a shrine that supposedly marks his grave. Women who ascend to the shrine on top and crawl though an opening across the holy rock will, according to legend, give birth to healthy children. The trees and bushes on the mountain are draped with numerous “prayer flags”, small pieces of cloth that are tied to them.
Song Köl – an alpine lake located at an altitude of 3016 m ASL with area of about 270 km2.
Issyk-Kul – tahe second largest mountain lake in the world behind Lake Titicaca in South America, located at the altitude of 1,607 metres ASL has 668 metres depth. It is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume, and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. Issyk-Kul means “warm lake” in the Kyrgyz language. It never freezes, although it is surrounded by snow-capped peaks,
Engilchek – a small town known as Ghost Town. After the closure of the tin mine, the population fell from 5,000 to less than 20 families (2009 population was 345 individuals).
