Karakoram Pass

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Karakorum Pass
Elevation 5,540 m./18,175 ft.
Location Flag of the People's Republic of China China / Flag of India India
Range Karakorum Range
Coordinates 35°30′48″N, 77°49′23″E
Traversed by Robert Shaw (1868); Francis E. Younghusband (1889); Theodore Jr. and Kermit Roosevelt (1926).

The Karakoram Pass (5,540 m or 18,175 ft)[1] is the highest pass on the ancient caravan route between Leh in Ladakh and Yarkand in the Tarim Basin. 'Karakoram' literally means 'Black Gravel' in Turkic.[2]

The high altitude and lack of fodder was responsible for the deaths of innumerable pack animals, and the route across the Pass was notorious for the trail of bones strewn along the way.[3] There is an almost total absence of vegetation on the approaches to the pass.[4]

To the south was the barren and feared three days' march across the Drepsang plain at about 5,400 m. (17,700 ft).[5] To the north, the country was somewhat less desolate before one had to cross the relatively easy and lower Suget Dawan (or Suget Pass)[6] before reaching the lush grazing grounds around Shahidullah or Xaidulla in the upper valley of the Karakash River.

This pass, on the boundary of territory controlled by India and China, plays a major geographic role in the dispute between Pakistan and India over control of the Siachen Glacier area immediately to the west. It falls along India's border with China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

It is in a saddle between two mountains and about 45 metres wide. There is no vegetation or icecap and it is generally free of snow due to the winds. However, the winds are often very high accompanied by low temperatures and there are frequent blizzards. In spite of all this, the Karakoram Pass was considered a relatively easy pass due to the gradual ascent on both sides, and lack of ice, although the extreme altitude took its toll. Because of this it was open all year.[7]. The pass currently remains closed to vehicular traffic.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ SRTM data; the figure is now known to be a few meters lower than provided in Rizvi, Janet. Trans-Himalayan Caravans : Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh, p. 217. 1999. Oxford University Press. New Delhi. ISBN 019-564855-2.
  2. ^ Younghusband, Francis E. The Heart of a Continent: A Narrative of Travels in Manchuria, across the Gobi Desert, through the Himalayas, the Pamirs and Chitral, 1884-94. First published: 1897. London. Unabridged facsimile (2005): Elibron Classics Replica Edition, p. 225. London ISBN 1-4212-6551-6 (pbk); ISBN 1-4212-6550-8 (hbk).
  3. ^ Shaw, Robert. (1871). Visits to High Tartary, Yarkand and Kashgar. Reprint with Introduction by Peter Hopkirk (1984): Oxford University Press, p. 431. ISBN 0-19-583830.
  4. ^ Rizvi, Janet. Ladakh: Crossroads of High Asia, p. 48. 1983. Oxford University Press. Reprint: Oxford University Press, New Delhi (1996). ISBN 019-564546-4.
  5. ^ Rizvi, Janet. (1999). Trans-Himalayan Caravans : Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh, p. 216. Oxford University Press. New Delhi. ISBN 019-564855-2.
  6. ^ Younghusband, Francis E. The Heart of a Continent: A Narrative of Travels in Manchuria, across the Gobi Desert, through the Himalayas, the Pamirs and Chitral, 1884-94. First published: 1897. London. Unabridged facsimile (2005): Elibron Classics Replica Edition, p. 226. London ISBN 1-4212-6551-6 (pbk); ISBN 1-4212-6550-8 (hbk).
  7. ^ Rizvi, Janet. (1999). Trans-Himalayan Caravans : Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh, pp. 28, 217. Oxford University Press. New Delhi. ISBN 019-564855-2.

[edit] References

  • Schmidt, Jeremy. Himalayan Passage: Seven Months in the High country of Tibet, Nepal, China, India & Pakistan. 1991. The Mountaineers Books, Seattle.
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