Murgab

Murghab (from the Persian word meaning "river of the birds") is the capital of Murghob District in the Pamir Mountains of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, Tajikistan. With a population 4,000, Murghab is about the only significant town the eastern half of Gorno-Badakhshan. It is the highest town in Tajikistan (and of the former Soviet Union) at 3,650m above sea level. It located at the junction of the Murghab River and the Pamir Highway.

The Pamir Highway goes north to Sary-Tash and on to Osh in Kyrgyzstan and southwest to the region's capital Khorog (about 300 kilometers distant). A newer road goes east over the Kulma Pass to the Karakoram Highway in China connecting to Tashkurgan to the south and Kashgar in the north. When the new road opened in May 2004, only Chinese and Tajik nationals were allowed to cross the Tajik–Chinese border at that point;the status of the border crossing in 2010 remains the same and according to locals in near future no plans are to open Kulma for other nationals.