Murghab - GBAO

Arrival in Murghab from Osh just before sunset	Long drive from Osh, Kyrgyzstan - 417 km	Low buildings of Murgab, elevation 3576m	License plate of the Tajikistan police
Soviet-style license plate of the autonomous Pamir Region (PT)	Lobby of the Pamir Hotel, Murghab	Restaurant of the Pamir Hotel, Murghab	Restaurant of the Pamir Hotel, Murghab
Traditional dining room, Pamir Hotel, Murghab	Pamir Hotel, Murghab	Pamir Hotel with a yurt out front	Inside the yurt at the Pamir Hotel
Inside the yurt at the Pamir Hotel	Yurt Interior, Tajikistan	Early morning before the mini market in Murghab opens	Morning in Murghab, GBAO
Woman shepherding her flock through town	Quiet morning under a bright blue sky, Murghab	Guesthouse Ibrahim Anara, Murghab	Murghab is the highest city in Tajikistan and the only major settlement in the far east of the country
Murghab (Tajik Мурғоб; Russian Мургаб	Guesthouse Ibrahim Anara, Murghab	Satellite dishes with the mosque standing off in the distance, Murghab	Some of the simple houses wouldn't look out of place in a remote corner of the American southwest
Murghab with its forest of utility poles	Murghab	Murghab	Man fetching water from a well, Murghab
Tourist Information Office - Closed until June 1	Murghab is a small place with perhaps 4000 inhabitants	Typical Murghab house, whitewashed with a blue door	It's chilly up here....the warmest month is July with an average temperature of 8.7 °C (47.7 °F)
Murghab, Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region	The climate type here is "Tundra" due to the high elevation and arid climate	Dirt road leading out of town to the east towards the river and mosque	Donkeys grazing just outside of town, Murghab
The rather stout mosque of Murghab sits just outside of town with a pair of brick minarets and a metal dome	Minaret of the Mosque of Murghab	No sign of activity of any kind on this morning in Murghab	Minaret with the town of Murgab against the hill in the distance
Minaret of the Mosque of Murghab	The building is oriented towards Mecca, over 3500 km to the southwest is distant Saudi Arabia	Mosque of Murghab with a small tributary of the Murghab river	The town of Murghab with "Welcome our Hazirimam" spelled out high on the mountainside
Murghab takes its name from the Persian word مرغاب (margh-ab) meaning "prairie river"	Donkeys graze on the edge of town, Murghab	The Pamir Hotel seems to be one of the largest buildings in town	Murghab - not a tree in sight
Murghab, GBAO	Typical house for Murghab	The seal of Tajikistan	Another pass by the Tourist Information Office, Murghab
Public baths (Banya), open Friday to Tuesday	9 September - 23rd Anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Tajikistan	Jumhurii, very similar to the Arabic and Persian words for Republic	Town of Murghab, GBAO
What looks like a very stripped Lada in Murghab	View over the "lower town" of Murghab	Murghab	The Pamir Highway in Murghab
Agroinvestbank, Murghab, Tajikistan	75% of the residents of Murghab are ethnic Kyrgyz, the rest Pamiri	Tajik-Kyrgyz Friendship Monument, Murghab	Tajik-Kyrgyz Friendship Monument, Murghab
National Crest of the Republic of Tajikistan	National Crest of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan	A group of foreigners was staying at the Guesthouse Erali in Murghab	In addition to the Pamir Highway linking Kyrgyzstan to Khorog, a new road leads to Tashkurgan in China's western Xinjiang Region
That house could use a little roof maintenance	Mughab, GBAO	The branch of the Agroinvestbank in Murghab must be one of the newer buildings in town	Murghab
Murghab	Back to the Pamir Hotel, Murghab	Tajikistan License Plate	Breakfast at the Pamir Hotel
Pamir Hotel interior, Murghab	Gas prices in Murghab GBAO - 6.70 Somoni/Liter ($3.22 a gallon)	Fueling the Land Cruiser the old fashioned way	This is the road that leads to China. It sounds like the border is closed to foreigners
Muztag Ata (7509m/24635ft) visible 100 km in the distance in China	Murghab was founded by the Russians in 1893 as a remote military outpost	World War II Monument, Murghab	Looks like a government building or school, Murghab
Lenin still stands in this remote corner of the former Soviet Union, just 95km by road from China	Vladimir Lenin Statue, Murghab	Vladimir Lenin Statue, Murghab	World War II Memorial, Murghab
A monument to the fallen in the Great Patriotic War, Murghab	Mourning the loss	Monument from the Soviet-era, the fading inscription difficult to read	The Great Patriotic War is the term used in the USSR for World War II
War Memorial Square, Murghab	Cavalry Charge	War Memorial Square, Murghab	Time to continue the next leg of the journey along the Pamir Highway