Route du Karakorum

The road of Karakorum (or Karakoram Highway , shortened KKH) is a strategic Route built by the armies Pakistani and Chinese of 1966 with 1982 through the mountainous solid mass of the Karakoram (or Karakorum ). It is also the highest tarred road of the world: it connects the China to the Pakistan, by crossing collars up to 4693 meters of altitude.

It connects the Turkestan Chinese (Xinjiang) to the north of Pakistan, and beyond, the Pakistani port of Gwadar to the wedged areas of the Chinese west. It is also an important tourist attraction, since its opening to the public, in 1986.

History

The road of Karakorum, or Road of the friendship for the Chinese, is built jointly by China and Pakistan, and completed only with the beginning of the year 1980. 810 Pakistani and 82 Chinese died during the construction of the road, generally during falls or of landslides. It borrows one of the routes of the Silk route.

Pakistani side, the road is built by the Organization of frontier work, which uses the body of the military Engineering Pakistani. A project of writing of the history of this road is in the course of drafting by the sergeant (in retirement) Muhammad Mumtaz Khalid, who witnessed his construction.

The road

The road links the regions of the north of Pakistan to the areas of the south-west of China, via a way of approximately 1300 km length, between Kashgar, (in the Xinjiang), and Havelian, in the District Abbottabad, in Pakistan. An additional section connects the road to the Grand Trunk Road with Hassan Abdal, in the west of Islamabad.

The road passes above the zone of Subduction between the continental plates Asian and Indian.

Crossing the Azad Kashmir (left Pakistani the Cashmere), hot area disputed between Pakistan and India, the road has of this fact an important strategic value for Pakistan, but also for China. Besides the road has, for the moment, an interest strategic than economic.

The June 30th 2006, an agreement of mutual aid is signed between the Pakistani Administration of the highways and the Commission of supervision and Chinese administration, with capital of State, in order to rebuild and to improve the road. The width will pass from 10 to 30 meters, and its capacity will triple. It also will be adapted to heavier vehicles, and accessible all the year.

China and Pakistan also envisaged to connect the road of Karakorum to the Pakistani port of Gwadar to the Balouchistan, by the railway connection Gwadar-Dalbandin, on Chinese funds, which will be prolonged until Rawalpindi.

Lastly, Pakistan and the Ouzbékistan envisage to build a road and a railway to connect Ouzbékistan to this road.

Environment

The road of Karakorum crosses a vertiginous mountainous solid mass.

Mountains and glaciers

Lakes and rivers

Tourism

For a few years, the road has become a tourist destination, for the adventurous tourists. It also gives an easier access to the mountaineers and cyclists to very the high mountain, the Glacier S and the lakes of the area. It also makes it possible to reach the towns of Gilgit and Skardu starting from Islamabad.

See too

not to confuse the mountainous solid mass with the town of Karakorum in Mongolia, old capital of the Mongolian Empire.

External bonds

Sources

English language version of the article of August 26th, 2006.

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