Irshad Pass (elevation ), also called Ershād Yūvīn, Yirshod Wuyin, Irshad Urween, Irshād Uwin, Kotale Ers̄āḏ Owīn, or Kowtal-e Ershād Owīn, is a high

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both human and animal migr ...

that connects the

Chapursan Chapursan (; also spelt Chipurson, Chiporson, Chaporsan, Chupurson) is a valley containing approximately eight scattered villages situated within the Hunza District of Gilgit−Baltistan in Pakistan. It is located in the northern part of the co ...

river valley in

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory, and constituting the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region which has been the subject of a dispute bet ...

province with the

Wakhan Corridor The Wakhan Corridor ( ps, واخان دهلېز, translit=wāxān dahléz, fa, دالان واخان, translit=dâlân vâxân) is a narrow strip of territory in Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan, extending to Xinjiang in China and separatin ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

. According to a map shown in the ''

National Geographic Magazine ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

,'' the elevation of Irshad Pass is slightly higher than the figure given above, at 4,979 m. (16,335 ft.) The article mentions that the nomadic

Kyrgyz people The Kyrgyz people (also spelled Kyrghyz, Kirgiz, and Kirghiz; ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is the nation state of the Kyrgyz people and significant diaspora can be found in China, Russia, and Uzbekistan. Th ...

of the Wakhan Corridor, who total only about 1,100, cross the Irshad Pass in spring and autumn to trade animals for supplies at Babaghundi Ziarat in north-western

Hunza, Pakistan Hunza (, ur, ), also known as Kanjut (; ), was a principality and then later a princely state in a subsidiary alliance with British India from 1892 to August 1947, for three months was unaligned, and then from November 1947 until 1974 was ...

."Stranded on the Roof of the World."

Michael Finkel Michael Finkel (born 1969) is a journalist and memoirist, who has written the books ''True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa'' (2005) and ''The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit'' (2017). Career Finkel was a wri ...

. ''National Geographic Magazine'', February, 2013, pp. 84-111.

Footnotes

Mountain passes of Afghanistan Mountain passes of Gilgit-Baltistan Afghanistan–Pakistan border Wakhan Landforms of Badakhshan Province {{GilgitBaltistan-geo-stub Karakoram