Khunjerab Pass

English

Etymology

Partial calque of Wakhi درہ خنجراب (literally “waterfall house valley”), from دره (“valley; crack; fissure”) + خون (“house”) + جراب (“creek coming from a spring or a waterfall”), or, 'Valley of Blood'.[1][2] (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Proper noun

Khunjerab Pass or the Khunjerab Pass

  1. A mountain pass connecting Xinjiang in China with Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan; it is the highest point on Karakoram Highway, at an altitude of 4,693 metres (15,397 feet), making it the highest paved international border crossing in the world.
    • 1972, Theodore Shabad, “Sinkiang”, in China's Changing Map National and Regional Development, 1949-71‎[4], Praeger Publishers, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 313:
      In 1971, a motor road was inaugurated between Sinkiang and Pakistan across Khunjerab Pass of the Karakorum Mountains.
    • 1977, George B[eals] Schaller, Mountain Monarchs: Wild Sheep and Goats of the Himalaya (Wildlife Behavior and Ecology), Chicago, Ill.; London: The University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, plate 15:
      The rolling uplands at 5000 m near Khunjerab Pass on the Hunza-Sinkiang border are a favored habitat of Marco Polo sheep.
    • 2010 September 8, Selig S. Harrison, “China's Presence in Pakistan”, in The New York Times‎[5], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 September 2015, Opinion‎[6]:
      In addition, several thousand P.L.A. troops are said to be stationed in the Khunjerab Pass on the Xinjiang border to protect Karakoram Highway construction crews, with ready access to Gilgit-Baltistan.
    • 2013 October 15, “World's most dangerous roads”, in USA Today‎[7], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 November 2013:
      The Karakoram Highway, which links China and Pakistan over the 15,400-foot Khunjerab Pass, winds through some spectacular gorges along the route of the old Silk Road. The international "Friendship Highway," which isn't even paved on the Pakistani side, is so unstable and prone to flash floods that almost 900 workers died during its construction, mostly crushed by landslides.
    • 2015 April 24, Frank Sieren, “Sieren's China: Beijing's 'Marshall Plan' for Pakistan”, in Deutsche Welle‎[8], archived from the original on 29 August 2015, China‎[9]:
      On the Chinese side we drove up the 4,700-meter-high Khunjerab Pass from Kashgar - which was like driving through the Black Forest to Lake Titisee. At the border station the road ended abruptly, cut off like a piece of cake, before continuing a good meter lower down. The comfortable, tarred road suddenly became a dangerous, rough, rubble-strewn one.
    • 2023 October 20, Ariba Shahid, “Khunjerab Pass linking Pakistan, China to stay open all year round”, in Reuters‎[10], archived from the original on 21 February 2025:
      The Khunjerab Pass, a major land trade route between Pakistan and China, will be converted to an all-weather border, Pakistani caretaker prime minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said at an event at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Friday.

Translations

References

  1. ^ Topping, Seymour (2 December 1979) “KARAKORAM”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 August 2017‎[2]: “The herdsman spoke in Wakhi, a language of northern Hunza and the border areas. In Walchl, Khunjerab means “Valley of Blood,” perhaps an ancient reference to the travelers who did not survive the perilous passage.”
  2. ^ Schaller, George B. (1980) “Karakoram”, in Stones of Silence: Journeys in the Himalaya‎[3], Andre Deutsch, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 93: “Three days later we were back at Sost, ready to proceed by car to Khunjerab Pass. Khunjerab is a Wakhi word meaning Valley of Blood, so named because of the fearful toll it exacted of animals and men.”

Further reading

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