Allah’s Mountains: Establishing a National Park in the Central Asian Pamir

Abstract

Although the debate over Marco Polo’s itinerary across Central Asia continues, the Venetian Merchant surely reached the Pamir Plateau and camped beside the icy waters of Lake Issikul. His 13th century narrative of this Roof of the World, where the Pamir and Hindu Kush converge, is very accurate. The glacial peaks, windswept plateaus, non-existent avifauna, and “heaps” of sheep horns that comprise this landscape are difficult for one uninitiated to simply imagine into being. Moreover, the nomadic Kirghiz who graze yaks here today still pursue wild ungulates for meat and clothing. This is how it appeared in July 1991, when our research team entered this highland outpost, seven centuries after Marco Polo and one year after the fall of Soviet Communism.