| Tashkurgan to Kashgar - We left Tashkurgan, a place mainly populated
with Tajik peoples, and drove northward into the Pamirs. We passed new
peoples, the Kyrgyz, who are more nomadic and live in Mongolian style
yurts, which are round tents. Their dress is also different, long white
hats for men, flowing dresses and silk handkerchief bandanas for the women.
Kyrgyz look Mongolian while Tajiks look Turko-Russian. To leave the Pamir
plateau we went over another mountain pass, through the foothills of the
Kongur Mountain (7719 meters) and Muztagh-Ata Mountain (7546 meters),
through wine-red sandstone walls of the Ghez Canyon, across huge boulder
fields, and past a submerged plateau ringed by vast sand dunes called
teh Kumtagh or Sand Mountains by locals. |
