Khorog lies in southeastern Tajikistan, across the Piandj river from Afghanistan.
Most travellers are likely to come from the north. This means they must first
cross the "Roof of the World," the Pamirs, the world's highest mountain range.
The trip is always difficult if not entirely out of the question. Planes from
Dushanbe can take off only in ideal weather conditions; the flight path requires
pilots to thread their way between (rather than over) the treacherous peaks. The
highway from Dushanbe isn't much more reliable. It's badly in need of repair and
becomes impassable during the winter months. Perhaps the
main obstacle to travel along it in recent years has been
frequent fierce fighting between government and opposition
forces, and local bandits and warlords. The only other overland route into
Khorog is the 728-kilometer stretch of asphalt beginning in Osh, in Kyrgystan,
but this is equally susceptible to avalanches and mudslides. In November, one such avalanche killed at least 46 travellers, burying them under a 40-foot-deep
blanket of snow.
There's an old Tajik legend about a hunter who
makes a startling deathbed confession. He tells his wife he once discovered a
lost city in the High Pamirs. "I walked for a very long time along a river," he
says, "until I reached a fantastic town, where everyone wears white woolen
clothing and has a lot of land, water, and livestock. They live in peace and have
neither king, nor ministers, nor functionaries. They are governed only by a
village elder. When it was time for me to leave, they gave me a little bag of
pure, white salt, and I swore never to reveal their secret." Those were the
hunter's last words and, as the story goes, the location of the lost city died
with him.
Khorog could be that city. The 20,000 people who live
here aren't prosperous, but Khorog does convey the impression of being "lost,"
and there's something fantastic about the place that leaves an indelible
impression. "The sky is bluer there," insists Monica Whitlock, a BBC
correspondent based in Dushanbe. "And the sheep look whiter."