Irkeshtam pass

Irkeshtam pass
Compass direction	west	east
Pass height	3005  m
area	Osh ( Kyrgyzstan )
Watershed	Kyzylsuu	Nura
Valley locations	Sarytash	Irkeshtam
expansion	Trunk road A371 ( E60 )
Mountains	Tianshan
map
Coordinates	39 ° 39 '7 "  N , 73 ° 49' 47"  E Coordinates: 39 ° 39 '7 "  N , 73 ° 49' 47"  E

The Irkeschtam Pass is a 3005  m high mountain pass in the Osh Province ( Oblast ) of the Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan at the eastern end of European Route 60 in the eastern Pamirs . It is located just before the border between Kyrgyzstan and the Chinese Xinjiang .

geography

The pass is located about 55 kilometers east of Sarytash , where the E60, coming from the south of Tajikistan , intersects the M41 , the Pamir Highway , which in turn connects the Kyrgyz city of Osh in the Ferghana Valley with Chorugh in the autonomous province of Berg-Badakhshan in eastern Tajikistan . The small border town of Irkeschtam is located about 10 km (as the crow flies; about 20 km driving distance) east-northeast of the pass , and again 3 km further east is the border crossing to China. After the Torugart Pass , located 165 km northeast in the province of Naryn , the border crossing at Irkeschtam is the second most important road connection between Kyrgyzstan and China and the most important from China to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan .

history

The Chinese explorer and imperial envoy Zhang Qian is said to have been the first to cross the pass when he was in 128 BC. BC visited the Fergana Valley on behalf of Emperor Wu to win allies against the Xiongnu .

It was not until 1893 that the mule track from Osh to Irkeschtam was expanded and paved by the Russian Empire and classified as a roadway, but goods were still transported using pack animals: horses, camels and donkeys. After the completion of the 1932 section of the Pamir Highway from Kyrgyz Osh to Chorugh in Tajikistan, and especially in the 1950s, the piste from Sarytasch over the Irkeschtam Pass was gradually improved. The passport, which was hardly used at the time, was closed in the wake of the Sino-Soviet rift in the 1960s and only reopened in 1998, but only for the movement of goods until 2002. Since the road over the Irketscham Pass is the shortest connection from China to the Uzbek and Tajik Ferghana valleys , it has been greatly expanded since 2002, and today 1000 or more vehicles cross the pass and the border at Irkeschtam every month.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ dangerousroads.org
2. ↑ kyrgyzstantravel.info
3. ^ Richard WT Pomfret: The Central Asian Economies Since Independence . Princeton University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-691-12465-0
4. ↑ Irkeshtam Pass, Kyrgyzstan (2003) on advantour.com