Pamir Highway - Murghab to Khargush

Shiney new green tiled mosque in the first village along the Pamir Highway south of Murghab	930 km to Dushanbe and 311 km to Khorog along the Pamir Highway from Murghab	Today's destination is the Wakhan Valley, so we'll leave the Pamir Highway at Sasikul just after Alichor	The second nameless village outside of Murghab
Plenty of room to widen the Pamir Highway	Livestock grazing on the valley floor along the Pamir Highway	High valley of the Murghab River at 11,745ft MSL	The 850 km long Murghab River will never reach the sea. It dies in the deserts of Turkmenistan
This section of the Pamir Highway is paved and in good condition	Murghab River, GBAO	Grasslands on either side along this bend in the Murghab River, lush vegetation for the Pamirs	Just a short distance from the river, the arid rocky landscape resumes
A small canyon with some of the high Pamir peaks in the distance	The Pamir Highway climbs away from the Murghab River and its grassy valley	A yurt and small hut along the Pamir Highway	Pamir Highway
There's not much traffic on the Pamir Highway	Pamir Highway	The Pamirs, rising from the high plateau, are just a taste of the stunning Hindu Kush to come	Pamir Highway
Pamir Highway	The Pamirs are a high mountain range at the junction of the Himalayas with the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hin	The Pamir Mountains - the Roof of the World	Blue sky and crisp cool mountain air
Livestock grazing in the arid valley	Pamir Highway	Scenery of the Pamirs	There's a sign km 137 which must be from the Kulma Pass leading to China
Naizaitash pass on the Pamir Highway, km 139	A dark, nearly black mountain rises to 5240m/17200ft from the flat plain	Pamir Highway descending the east side of Naizaitash pass	Along the Pamir Highway
Small overpass on the Pamir Highway dated 2005	Sheep by a waterhole with a small house and yurt in the back ground	Approaching the large Pamir Highway village of Alichur	Breaktime in Alichur
Mud bricks drying int he sun, Alichur	Stolovaya, a small guesthouse in Alichur	A yurt in Alichur	Alichur - another small restaurant/hotel
Safe Ride!	Vehicle Maintenance Facility Shugnon District	Marhaba - Welcome to Alichur	Sassykul Lake, a few km southeast of Alichur along the Pamir Highway
Salt pan near Sassykul	Here, around km 217, the paved Pamir Highway heads westward towards Khorog	125km from Murghab and 313km from the Kyrgyzstan Border, we leave the Pamir Highway for the Wakhan Valley	The quality of the road diminishes significantly for the 30 km drive to Khargush on the border with Afghanistan
Mountains along the road to Khargush	The rough dirt road from the Pamir Highway to Khargush	Southern Alichur Range of the Pamir Mountains	Chukurkul Lake at 13,000 ft MSL
Southern Alichur Range of the Pamir Mountains	Khargush Pass, 4344m	Khargush Lake at 14,000 ft MSL	Descending to Khargush as Afghanistan comes into view with Kohe Belandtarin (6286m/20,623 ft) on the far right
Mountains of the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan	The small river in the distance is the Pamir River, a tributary of the Panj, which forms the Tajik-Afghan border	Steven with Pamir River and Afghanistan	A crescent moon over the mountains
Descending to the Pamir River by Khargush, Tajikistan	A crumbling stone ruin in Afghanistan, perhaps an ancient caravanserai	Looking down the valley of the Pamir River towards the Hindu Kush whose ridge forms the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan	The rough road down to the Pamir Valley
Pamir Valley at Khargush	Sand dunes at the base of the mountains covering the rock desert floor	Khargush didn't seem to be even a wide spot in the road