Learn More. Heading southwest along Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan, where 20,foot peaks loom in an appendage called the Wakhan Corridor. A ruined castle above Vrang, Tajikistan. Some fortifications date back to the late Bronze Age, to fire-worshipping kings. Amadbek Bandaishoyev and his collection of old Pamiri musical instruments in Yamdg village, Tajikistan. Stone voices: Thousands of petroglyphs dating back at least to the Bronze Age suggest the Wakhan valley was long a corridor of migration.
Sentinel: A lone tree grows in the Wakhan valley. The ramparts of Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor rise to the south. Bowl of light: leaving Ishkashem, Afghanistan, for the trek east into the little visited Wakhan Corridor. Time pools in the Wakhan Corridor: Threshing wheat using biblical technologyβthe hooves of animals.
It is a simple bridge. Made of crudely poured concrete. Little used. Indeed, a rusty gate locks access to all traffic from 4 p. Yet historyβworldsβcollide here.
On one side of the span: Tajikistan. The Russian language. Battered old Lada cars. Lethal vodka sold in plastic bottles. Cratered pavement. Girls wearing trousers.
Lines of yellow poplar trees. And phone and electric power serviceβall the fading legacy of 70 years of colonization by the Soviet Union. On the other side: Afghanistan. Dari, a dialect of Persian, is the official regional language. Dented old Toyota Hilux pickups. Alcohol is banned. Faint dirt ruts pass for roads. In the streets of the border town, women trip in burqas. Fewer trees. Though new plantations now dot the rocky soil. And many, many more donkeys.
