To the east, they extend to the range that includes China's Kongur Tagh, in the "Eastern Pamirs",[3] separated by the Yarkand valley from the Kunlun Mountains.

Ten percent of annual runoff is supposed to originate from retreating glaciers in the Southern Pamirs.

The East-Pamir, in the centre of which the massifs of Mustagh Ata (7620 m) and Kongur Tagh (Qungur Shan, 7578, 7628 or 7830 m) are situated, shows from the western margin of the Tarim Basin an east–west extension of c. 200 km.

Whilst the up to 21 km long current valley glaciers are restricted to mountain massifs exceeding 5600 m in height, during the last glacial period the glacier ice covered the high plateau with its set-up highland relief, continuing west of Mustagh Ata and Kongur.

From the north-adjacent Kara Bak Tor (Chakragil, c. 6800 or 6694 m) massif, the Oytag valley glacier in the same exposition flowed also down up to c. 1850 m asl.

Coal is mined in the west, though sheep herding in upper meadowlands is the primary source of income for the region.

The lapis lazuli found in Egyptian tombs is thought to come from the Pamir area in Badakhshan province of Afghanistan.

From about 600 CE, Buddhist pilgrims travelled on both sides of the Pamirs to reach India from China.

From 1871 to around 1893 several Russian military-scientific expeditions mapped out most of the Pamirs (Alexei Pavlovich Fedchenko, Nikolai Severtzov, Captain Dmitry Putyata and others.

The Russians were followed by a number of non-Russians including Ney Elias, George Littledale, the Earl of Dunmore, Wilhelm Filchner and Lord Curzon who was probably the first to reach the Wakhan source of the Oxus River.

In 1891 the Russians informed Francis Younghusband that he was on their territory and later escorted a Lieutenant Davidson out of the area ('Pamir Incident').

[16] The Pamir Highway, the world's second highest international road, runs from Dushanbe in Tajikistan to Osh in Kyrgyzstan through the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, and is the isolated region's main supply route.

[17] In December 2009, the New York Times featured articles on the possibilities for tourism in the Pamir area of Tajikistan.

Historically, the Pamir Mountains were considered a strategic trade route between Kashgar and Kokand on the Northern Silk Road, a prehistoric trackway, and have been subject to numerous territorial conquests.

[20] In the 20th century, these mountains have been the setting for the Tajikistan Civil War, border disputes between China and the Soviet Union, establishment of military bases by the US, Russia, and India,[21] and renewed interest in trade development and resource exploration.

[25][26][27][28][29][30][31] The Mount Meru is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Buddhist and Jain, and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.