Pamir is a mountain system in the south of Central Asia and in the north of the Himalaya mountain range, in Tajikistan (the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region), China, Afghanistan and India. The Pamir is located on the junction of the spurs of other powerful mountain systems of Central Asia - the Hindu Kush, Karakorum, Kunlun and Tien Shan.
The common etymology of the Pamir name is not. Interpretations are interpreted as "the roof of the world", "the foot of death" (Iran), "the foot of a bird", "the foot of Mithra" (the sun god).
The highest point of the Pamirs is Kongur peak (height 7 649 m) located on the territory of China.
Other "seven thousanders" of the Pamirs:
The peak of Ismail Samani (the former peak of Communism), the height of 7,495 m is the highest peak of the entire former USSR. It was discovered in the 1880s by Russian explorers of Pamir. By mistake it was identified with Garmo Peak; Later the error was corrected. In 1932 it was named Stalin Peak; In 1962 it was renamed into the peak of Communism, in 1998 it was renamed into the peak of Ismail Samani (Tajikistan).
Peak Lenin (peak Abu Ali ibn Sina) - the height of 7 134 m. Opened in 1871. It was called the peak of Kaufmann; In 1928 it was renamed Lenin Peak; In 2006, in Tajikistan, renamed the peak of Abu Ali ibn Sina (after Avicenna), it is the peak of Ibn Sina.
Peak Korzhenevskaya - height 7 105 m. Discovered in 1910 by the Russian geographer NL Korzhenevsky. Named after his wife Evgenia Korzhenevskaya.
In the XVIII-XX centuries the Pamir and its surrounding areas became the arena of geopolitical rivalry between the British and Russian empires, which in the history of British geopolitics was called the "Great Game".
At present, the Pamir is a knot of unresolved contradictions between a number of states, which leads to geopolitical tensions in the region.