Travel to Khorog

Khorog sits at 2,200 meters in a steep canyon where the Gunt River meets the Panj, which forms the Afghan border. The city stretches five kilometers long and barely one kilometer wide, hemmed by mountains rising above 4,000 meters on all sides. Afghanistan is close enough to see people and livestock on the opposite bank. As capital of GBAO, Khorog is home to roughly 30,000 people and serves as the administrative, commercial, and cultural center for a province covering 45 percent of Tajikistan’s territory.

Every route through the Pamirs passes through Khorog. The M41 Pamir Highway runs along Lenin Street, branching east toward Murghab and Kyrgyzstan, south toward the Wakhan Corridor, and north toward the Bartang Valley and Sarez Lake. The city offers the region’s only ATMs, its best medical facilities at the Aga Khan Medical Centre, a university campus, and a bazaar where travelers stock up before venturing into some of the most remote terrain on the planet.