Wakhan Corridor

The Wakhan Corridor is a narrow strip of Tajik territory stretching eastward between Afghanistan and Pakistan toward the Chinese border, bounded on all sides by some of the highest mountain ranges in the world — the Pamirs, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush. The valley floor follows the Panj and Wakhan rivers, lined with small Wakhi and Ismaili villages whose stone-and-mud architecture has changed little for centuries. Ruins of Alexander-era and medieval fortifications are scattered along the valley, and the corridor offers some of the most dramatic high-mountain scenery accessible by road in Central Asia.