Highest Mountains in Afghanistan

Climbing history

Noshaq main was first climbed by a Japanese expedition on 17 August 1960, led by Professor Yajiro Sakato. Other members of the expedition were Goro Iwatsubo and Toshiaki Sakai. The climb followed the normal Afghanistan approach, the West ridge from the Qazideh Glacier.

Noshaq East, Noshaq Central and Noshaq West were first climbed in 1963 by Austrians Dr. Gerald Gruber and Rudolf Pischenger.

The Tiroler Hindukusch-Ski-Expedition of Akademischer Alpenklub Innsbruck (Austria) made the first ski descent from the summit of Noshaq in 1970. The famous meteorologist Karl Gabl was a member of the team.

The first winter ascent was 13 February 1973 by Tadeusz Piotrowski and Andrzej Zawada, members of a Polish expedition, via the north face.

History

1878: British forces were victorious over Afghan forces and seized control of the Peiwar Pass in the Battle of Peiwar Kotal.

1878-1879: British surveyor George Batley Scott climbed the mountain during a campaign to survey Afghanistan.

Location

Mount Sikaram is located north of the village of Peshawar in the Kurram District of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Its parent range, Spīn Ghar, connects directly with the Shandūr offshoot of the Hindu Kush mountain system. Atop the range, temperatures can fall below 0 °C (32 °F) at any time of the year.

A small valley on the slope of Mount Sikaram encompasses a number of villages, settlements, and tribal regions—many of them historically significant—including Peiwar, Alizai, Tari Mangal, Narai, Speena Shaga, and Khewas. The Gawi Pass, also known as the Peiwar Kotal Pass, runs between the Kurram Valley and Afghanistan's Aryub Valley; it connects the Paktia Province of Afghanistan with the Kurram District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the former FATA region of Pakistan.

Geography and demography

Along Asian Highway 1 (AH1), the summit of the pass at Landi Kotal lies 5 km (3 mi) inside Pakistan, descending 460 m (1,510 ft) into the Peshawar Valley at Jamrud, about 30 km (19 mi) from the Afghan border, traversing part of the Spin Ghar mountains. The pass starts at Kadam near Jamrud, 18 km (11 mi) west of Peshawar. The total length of the pass proper is 25 mi (40 km) from Jamrud to Landi Kotal, although the lesser section of the pass runs for additional 8 mi (13 km) westwards until the town of Lōya Daka, in Afghanistan. The height of the summit is 3,373 ft (1,028 m).

To the north of the Khyber Pass lies the country of the Shalmani tribe and Mullagori tribe. To the south is Afridi Tirah, while the inhabitants of villages in the Pass itself are Afridi clansmen.

Ancient history

A number of historical invasions of the Indian subcontinent have been through the Khyber Pass, such as those of Darius I, Ardashir I, Shapur I and Anushirvan, and later, Mongols such as Duwa, Qutlugh Khwaja and Kebek. Prior to the Kushan era, the Khyber Pass was not a widely used trade route.

The pass has been traversed by military expeditions launched by empires such as the Achaemenids and Sassanids, as well as by nomadic invaders from Central Asia, including the Saka, Yuezhi, and White Huns. Indian empires rarely extended their control beyond the pass, with the Maurya king Chandragupta being an exception.

The Khyber Pass has witnessed the spread of Greek influence into India and the expansion of Buddhism in the opposite direction.