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Tashkurgan
 The ruins of a huge mudbrick fort still
stand on the edge of town, and although this one is estimated to be
about 600 years old, local lore says Tashkurgan has been a citadel for
over 2300 years. The Greek philosopher-scientist Ptolemy (90 to 168 AD)
mentioned Tashkurgan in his Guide to Geography as a stop on the road to
China. The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hsuan Tsang wrote about its fortress
in the 7th century, when it was the furthest frontier outpost of the
Tang dynasty.
Afghan
frontier
 In 1893, the British priority of a
strip of Afghan territory between the Hindu Kush frontier and the
Russian was accepted in principle; in return the Russians got most of
the Pamirs; the Amir, who stood to lose by this arrangement, was
mollified by British concessions elsewhere on their joint frontier. Thus
was created that anomalous strip of Afghan territory known as the Wakhan
corridor. In 1895 a joint Anglo-Russian boundary commission marked out
its eastern extremities and, separating Pakistan from the Tadjik region,
it survives virtually untouched to this day.
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 [19
Aug. mitigé Kashgar-Tashkurgan bus 290 km Hotel Pamir]
 KKH
ponts écroulés, routes ensevelies et bloquées par la pelleteuse,
paysages tellement beaux, presque indescriptible. Ulrich décole,
direction le Nirvana. Sommets de Mutztagh Ata (7596m) et Kongur (7719m), éblouissants!
Au lac, des trekkeurs professionels se
la jouent sérieux. Les vieux de mon bus ne pensent qu'à faire de la
route. Nous passons à quelques kilomètres de la frontière afghane.
Album
photo plein de surprises!
Le soir, au restaurant 'Ice Mountain
Hotel' de Tashkurgan, un mec s'asseoit à ma table, type latin. M'est
avis que Marco Polo et les siens ainsi que beaucoup de voyageurs du
déserts, moines y compris, ont laissé des traces de leur passage.
D'ailleurs l'hotel-resto est limite louche, son patron fait vachement
proxo; une dame vient lui rendre un cadenas... Plus tard dans la soirée,
rencontre avec Bahtiyar, le Tadjik. Je lui souhaite plein de bonheur
pour son mariage. |
