Alay Valley

Introducing Alay Valley

The far southern arm of Kyrgyzstan is the exclusive turf of trekkers and mountaineers, consisting as it does mostly of the heavily glaciated Pamir Alay range, a jagged, 500km-long seam running from Samarkand to Xinjiang. The range is threaded right up the middle by the muddy Kyzyl-Suu River (known as the Surkhob further downstream in Tajikistan – the two names mean Red Water in Kyrgyz and Tajik respectively) to form the 60km-long Alay Valley, the heart of the Kyrgyz Pamir.

Today it is hard to believe that at one time two of Central Asia’s earliest and busiest Silk Road branches crossed the Pamir Alay from Kashgar, at Kök-Art and at Irkeshtam. In the 19th century adventurers, explorers and spies roamed the area trying to curry favour with the Uzbek Khanate of Kokand and out do each other in a series of double-dealings and high-altitude espionage known in English as the Great Game and in Russian as the Tournament of Shadows.

The Alay Valley is the main access point for mountaineering expeditions into Tajikistan’s High Pamir – to 7495m Koh-i-Samani (formerly Pik Kommunizma, the highest point in the former USSR), 7134m Koh-i-Garmo (Pik Lenin) or 7105m Pik Korzhenevskaya.

Access from Kyrgyzstan is along the A372 from Osh, via Sary Tash and the 3615m Taldyk Pass. This is also the main route into Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan region. It’s possible to access the valley from Dushanbe in Tajikistan via the Garm Valley as well.

A trip into the Alay region is not a lightweight jaunt. There is little traffic on the main roads and food supplies are limited, even in summer. From October to May the A372 is often closed by snow, and even in summer snow and rainstorms can appear without warning. The best trekking months are July and August.

Last updated: Jun 3, 2009