Why this ride
The highest point is about 4,500 m. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Wakhan Corridor Road: Langar to Murghab
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 218 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 26
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Langar → Khargush Pass
This part of the ride is 158 km of Langar → Khargush Pass.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 158 km
Khargush Pass → Murghab
260 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it. This is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 260 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Langar
Langar is the last real village of the Tajik Wakhan, a cluster of stone and mud-brick houses at about 2,800 metres, hemmed in by the Panj river on one side and the high, bare mountains on the other, and beyond it the valley narrows toward the Wakhjir pass and China. It is a village of orchards and walled fields, irrigated by channels from the mountains, and in the evening smoke rises from every roof and children play on the dirt lanes. Across the river, in Afghanistan, a faint track runs along the foot of the Hindu Kush, and one sometimes sees a donkey or a man on a motorbike on the other bank.
Read the complete Langar write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Langar is where the day begins. Next is Khargush Pass.
2. Khargush Pass
Khargush Pass, at 4,344 metres, is the high point of the road along the Wakhan corridor, and it feels like the roof of the world. The track climbs from the Panj valley near Langar, where the river runs along the Afghan border below the white wall of the Hindu Kush, up into a stony plateau of the eastern Pamirs, cold, windy and almost without people. From the top, you can see the snow-capped Hindu Kush to the south, the barren Pamir ranges to the north and an enormous, empty sky.
Read the complete Khargush Pass write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Khargush Pass comes up 209 km in. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Murghab, mostly downhill.
3. Murghab
Murghab is a town at the top of the world, or close to it. At around 3,600 metres on the high Pamir plateau in eastern Tajikistan, it is among the highest settlements in Central Asia, a scatter of low buildings and shipping containers set on a vast, cold desert of gravel, with bare mountains standing on every side. The air is thin and dry, the sky is an intense blue, and the nights can fall well below freezing even in summer. In winter, temperatures drop to minus thirty or lower.
Read the complete Murghab write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 218 km.
Leg by leg
Langar to Khargush Pass
Langar → Khargush Pass is 158 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Khargush Pass to Murghab
Khargush Pass → Murghab is 260 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.