Le wakhan corridor

A narrow corridor 300 km long and 20 to 60 km wide to the east of Afghanistan, on the border with China and Tajikistan.

The Wakhan corridor is a sublime valley of striking beauty, isolated and mountainous.

A sumptuous forgotten valley, bordered by the Pamir and Indu-Kush mountains. Once used by Marco Polo and the merchants of the Silk Road.

The town of Ishkashim, on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, is the gateway to the Wakhan corridor. Superb and isolated, this 300-kilometre-long valley is dominated by the snow-capped peaks of the Pamir Mountains.

This spectacular valley is home to wakhis and Kirghiz nomads.

The life of the Wahkis is balanced between the world of the valley and that of the mountains.

Their picturesque villages are set in the middle of green valleys carved out by a river, populated by fields of barley and wheat and dotted with poplars. Surrounded by the monumental silhouettes of the Pamir mountains.

In summer, they set off into the mountains on the transhumance, guiding their herds of sheep, goats and yaks across a succession of glacial valleys, steppes and plateaux to the best pastures.

The Khirgyz nomads live higher up in the mountains, in a fierce wilderness with harsh winters. At an altitude of 4,000 m, the Khirgyz are the most isolated high-altitude community in the world. They live an ancestral way of life, following the rhythm of their cattle, moving their camp every three or four months.