Wakhan Corridor Road from Khorugh

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Khorog

   Khorog sits on the edge of Afghanistan, with only a river between them. The town lies at about 2,200 metres in the valley of the Gunt and Panj rivers, in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan, and from its streets you can see across the Panj to the villages and mountain tracks of the Afghan Pamir, close enough to hear the dogs. About thirty thousand people live here, the regional capital, and its character is calm and rather quiet, with tree-lined streets, Soviet-era buildings and a river promenade. A park beside the river is a pleasant place for a walk.

   Read the complete Khorog write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Khorog is where the day begins. Next is Ishkashim.

2. 2. Ishkashim

   A river a few hundred metres wide is all that separates Tajikistan from Afghanistan at Ishkashim, and you can watch farmers on the other bank working their fields as you drink your tea. The Panj, the upper Amu Darya, runs through a broad green valley here, hemmed in by the great ranges of the Pamir to the north and the Hindu Kush to the south. Snow peaks stand across the water, close enough to count the ridges, and the sight is among the most dramatic on the whole Pamir route. The town is small, around a few thousand people, with a bazaar, a handful of guesthouses and a border crossing that opens for traders and aid vehicles.

   Read the complete Ishkashim write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ishkashim comes up 135 km in. Next is Yamchun.

3. 3. Yamchun

   The Panj river is the border here, and across the water the land is Afghanistan. At Yamchun, in the Wakhan valley of Tajikistan, the road runs high above the river on the Tajik side, and the other bank is a narrow ribbon of farms and mud-brick houses under the great wall of the Hindu Kush. The valley is one of the most remote inhabited places in Asia, and its people, the Wakhi and Pamiri, are largely Ismaili Muslims who have lived here for many centuries, farming barley and apricots in small terraced fields.

   Read the complete Yamchun write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   271 km in you reach Yamchun. Next is Langar.

4. 4. 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, about halfway. Next is Khargush Pass.

5. 5. 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 sits at 542 km, late in the day. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Murghab, mostly downhill.

6. 6. 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 457 km.