Pamir Mountains

The Rushan Range lies in the western Pamirs between the Bartang and Gunt river valleys. Its steep slopes, snowfields and glaciers rise above the inhabited valleys of Rushan and Shughnan, two historic mountain principalities. Rivers descending from these heights join the Panj, while the ridges themselves divide a landscape of scattered villages and narrow cultivable strips from the high, icy interior of the Pamirs.