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The worst way to start an expedition

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OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River

The worst way to start an expedition

The Oxus Expedition has been many years in the making. Oxus explorer Bill Colegrave laid down the challenge to Sophie at the Royal Geographical Society back in 2014, and in summer 2021, we finally thought we had all our ducks in a row to travel. Then the Taliban re-took control of Afghanistan, the government collapsed, and travel in and out of a deeply unstable country was the last thing on our minds.Three years on, the security situation in Afghanistan has improved. A small number of tour operators – including some from the UK – are even bringing foreign tourists to explore historic sites like the Bamiyan Buddhas, the Herat Citadel, and the Minaret of Jam. We planned, we liaised with local fixers, and decided it was time to try again.We booked flights for 23 July, late enough in the summer that the spring meltwaters would have subsided and the tributaries of the Oxus would be low enough to cross on pony or on foot. Everything was packed, the insurance in place. But less than 48 hours before departure, we received a message from our fixer, Azim, in Ishkashim:

I have very bad news for you that the Taliban closed the Wakhan Corridor for all travellers due to some issues with the Pakistan border at the Broghil Pass […] Emergencies happen, I don’t know how long it will be closed for all travellers.

 
The Oxus Expedition team raring to go
Sophia at Rokhat Teahouse
Sleeping Buddha from Ajina Teppe

Fighting back tears of frustration and disappointment, we had to make a decision fast. Should we cancel now, and maybe recoup some money on the flights, or fly to Dushanbe anyway and hope the problem would soon be resolved?

We flew. We called numerous contacts in Afghanistan and abroad to try and discover what was going on. Official information was hard to come by, so we pieced together a story from phone calls and tangentially related local media coverage. The road to the Wakhjir Pass – Afghanistan’s border with China – was finished. Taliban officials had conducted a border survey, and the Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan had paid a visit to the Wakhan, too. Probably they are preparing to open the border crossing and allow the truck traffic to flow. Wary of foreign surveillance or interference at this sensitive time, the Taliban announced that nationals from NATO member countries would not be allowed to enter the Wakhan.

We could get a visa on arrival at the Sherkhan Bandar border post between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. We could enter Afghanistan, travel around, and visit any part of the country except the Wakhan Corridor, the one area which had always been accessible for tourists, which had a small but developing tourism sector, and was the only place we needed to visit. It seemed laughably unfair (though, for perspective, plenty of people – women in particular – have much bigger problems than this). There was, and still is, no indication as to when the restriction will be lifted.

For the first four, five days we stayed in Dushanbe, waiting. We repacked the expedition kit and caught up with friends and colleagues. We visited the Museum of Antiquities to see the 13m-long sleeping buddha from Ajina Teppe, and admired copies of the Oxus Treasure in the national Museum. We spent an evening at Hisor Fortress, watching couples in love take photos as the orange sun sank behind the mountains. There was time for a last visit to Rokhat Teahouse, a Dushanbe icon which has sadly been earmarked for demolition. Dushanbe is a pleasant enough city, and Miskola’s home town, but in late July 2024, it was not where we wanted to be. With no promising updates from Azim or anyone else, we rewrote our plans. We would travel the Tajik section of the Oxus, and if we heard that the Wakhan had reopened, head straight to the border. The Oxus Expedition would take place, but out of order.    

Dushanbe's new Parliament building
Sunset at Hisor Fortress

Packing for the Oxus Expedition

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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River

PACKING FOR THE OXUS EXPEDITION

On my first long-distance overland expedition in 2008, we had four vehicles and more than 70 items of luggage. Yes, we were filming a documentary then, so there was a lot of video production kit, but there were also cases of books and maps, pretty much every item of kitchenware except the kitchen sink, clothing for alll seasons, and more than a hundred inflatable globes. If you can think of it, we probably packed it. It was incredibly stressful and time consuming to pack and empty a vehicle at each new destination, and goodness knows how much stuff was lost or stolen. My reaction for many years since is to travel as lightly as possible, preferably with hand luggage only. I’ve mastered only packing colour-coordinated clothing so everything can go with anything; rolling things almost to nothing; and washing what I can along the way so I don’t need spares.

Packing for the Oxus Expedition requires an approach between the two. I wrote an initial packing list for the trip in spring 2021, anticipating travelling that summer, and so have had plenty of time to refine it since. I laid out everything I thought i needed on the floor in one room so I could see everything at once, removed the duplicate items (even I’m not so accident prone that I need three separate first aid kits), and noticed a few things were missing. Most of the items that were AWOL, I found or bought, but infuriatingly I know there must be one bag somewhere with a collection of expedition clothing I put away for safe keeping. If only I knew where!

The items I packed loosely fall into four categories: clothing, hiking and camping, tech, and, specially for this expedition, river kit. Jack Wolfskin has generously sponsored the Oxus Expedition with most of our clothing and camping equipment, and we’ll write separate blogs on this items. I supplemented the clothing pile with walking socks, including two new pairs made from alpaca wool, which the manufacturers claim is particularly light and breathable; a wide brimmed sun hat; and some modest active wear by new brand Haya. I’ll blog about the Haya items on another occasion, but in essence Haya produces well-designed clothing that Muslim women will feel comfortable wearing to the gym and when playing sport.

For hiking and camping, our kit list is fairly standard: Jack Wolfskin has provided tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, 65-litre holdalls, and 28-litre rucksacks. I have also packed a sleeping bag liner for nights when it is warm, and also for when we are sleeping in homestays where the sheets and blankets are questionable.

There are lots of small items which make life easier. I took my tatty luggage scales on two previous Wakhan treks: by weighing each bag, I can be sure the ponies and donkeys aren’t overladen. I’ve got a head torch and a wind-up torch, a She-Wee and a luminous orange trowel for digging the necessary toilet hole, and a Leatherman multi-tool. In fact, I think the Leatherman is the only item which also came with me in 2008. 

I have a full set of 1:100,000 scale maps of the Wakhan Corridor and have downloaded the Afghanistan maps to Maps.me on my phone as the app still works offline. Miskola has Markus Hauser’s excellent 1:500,000 scale maps of Southern Tajikistan and the Pamirs, plus a GPS unit which also records altitude. We do have a satellite phone, but there’s a question as to whether or not we will be allowed to take it into Afghanistan. There’s a bag of assorted chargers and power banks for laptops, phones, cameras, etc.

For the river, I wrote about the TVHR in a previous blog. It’s very low tech, but that means there’s less that can go wrong with it. Waders are bulky and quite heavy, but a necessity for standing around in the water, especially when said water has flowed off a glacier and is icily cold. I’ve packed a tape measure and a laser distance meter to measure the width of each channel, and also a rope throw bag, which is important for safety if someone gets swept off their feet in the river. Lastly, there’s a pair of hiking poles, gaffer tape, superglue, string, and cable ties in case we need to cobble together an extension for the TVHR, or repair anything on the vehicle or camping gear along the way. Like a first aid kit, they’re essential for any expedition.

River gauging using a transparent velocity head rod (TVHR)

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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River

River gauging using a transparent velocity head rod (TVHR)

There are three common definitions of the true source of a river: the source which is furthest
from the sea; the source which is at highest altitude; and the source which contributes the
greatest volume of water to the river basin. It is straightforward to collect data to compare
sources against the first two definitions, using a GPS and altimeter; but calculating water flow is
more complex and time-consuming.

Sophie measuring flow depth with the TVHR

Preparing for the Oxus Expedition, Sophia and I looked at a wide range of different gauges, which could be used to measure velocity and/or the total water flow in a channel. Some were prohibitively expensive or heavy; others required an external power source or internet
connection. We needed something simple but rugged. Thankfully, Nick Everard, Senior Hydrometric Scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) suggested somesimple, viable options, including the transparent velocity head rod (TVHR). The TVHR was developed by hydrologists at INRAE in France. It is a low-tech way to measure both the depth of a river and the velocity of the water at surface level. By taking these measurements at multiple point across a channel and inputting the data into a spreadsheet, you can visualise a cross-section of the river and calculate the average flow. I ordered two TVHRs, one to use in the field and the other as a back-up, in case the primary gauge broke or was washed away. None of the expedition team has a background in hydrology, and it is important to use the equipment correctly in order to get accurate measurements. I communicated at length with staff at INRAE, in particular the ever-helpful Mickaël Lagouy;
watched the instruction video on YouTube; and co-opted two much more knowledgeable friends, Matt and Jack, to give the TVHR a trial run in Wiltshire.

The Ebble and the Nadder are very different rivers to those we will be measuring in the Wakhan. However, the basic skills for using the TVHR and inputting data are the same. I got togged up in enormous waders on one of July’s hottest, sweatiest days, and jumped in at the two easily/acceasible test sites we’d chosen in Broad Chalke and Wilton. Step one is to measure the width of the channel. In the trials we used a 10 m tape measure, but I’ve subsequently bought a laser distance meter, We decided to take measurements at 50 cm intervals, so 10-12 sets for each river. In essence, the TVHR is a transparent Perspex metre stick. Standing downriver, you put it in the water until it touches the bottom, turn it side on to the direction of the river flow, and read off the flow depth from the centimetre rule. The TVHR is a metre long but it works reliably up to 120 cm, and possibly beyond: you’d just need a longer pole to measure the depth and be very careful not to get swept away. Once you’ve recorded the depth, you twist the TVHR 90 degrees: you now feel the water pushing at the flat side of the gauge. Looking closely, you’ll see that the water level on the upriver side of the gauge is higher than on the downriver side. You slide the millimetre rules — one transparent, one red — to align with each of these levels, then read off the difference between them. This is the velocity head. INRAE provides a spreadsheet to input data, pre-set with equations and three options for the edge co-efficient. You choose which option is most applicable for the angle of the riverbank, add your figures to the table, and voila! It automatically calculates the discharge, area, and mean velocity, and plots the shape of the channel and thd percentage of discharge at each point measured on the graph.

Sophie and Jack testing the TVHR in the River Nadder

The TVHR is incredibly simple to use, even for amateurs. It won’t be possible to use it in large, fast-flowing rivers, but I am excited to put it to use in the smaller mountain streams of the Wakhan Corridor. It will be interesting to see how the surface velocity data we get from the TVHR compares with the video velocimetry data we will also be collecting. I will report back on that later in the summer.

Sophie and Matt uploading measurements to the TVHR spreadsheet

Training for the Oxus Expedition

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OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River

HOW I AM TRAINING FOR THE OXUS EXPEDITION

In a few weeks I head to Tajikistan for the first leg of the Oxus expedition, with the aim of climbing a beautiful (unforgiving) remote mountain range in the Pamirs, located in Afghanistan and to find the source of the Oxus river.

There will be some things on the mountain that I can’t control such as the weather, the snow conditions and the way my body reacts to the high altitude. I am therefore focused now on the things I can control, to help me prepare as best I can.

I was under no illusion that preparing for an expedition to the Pamir mountains was going to be easy. It requires physical and mental preparation, developing skills and experience in navigation, mountain travel and being able to recognise and avoid steep rocky terrain. The necessary tick-list I received when I started this journey was a definite reality check. I knew that there was a big challenge ahead of me and that I would need to push far beyond my comfort zone to achieve it. The key to my success was going to be my training.

An important part of my training was to find and create a tailored training plan to build my endurance, strength and cardiovascular fitness. After several conversations with other mountain climbers and hours of research I came to the conclusion that stamina and endurance are the most important facets of physical training since the majority of a mountaineering expedition will involve steadily hiking uphill with a rucksack over a long period of time – usually consecutive hours without a chance to stop.

Behind the beauty of the Wakhan pass and the Pamir Mountains is isolation and danger. Its landscape is a testament to the forces of nature and it’s a full body workout to navigate the large ridges, steep mountains and valleys that cut through the terrain. I was told that a high-altitude, low-oxygen environment dramatically suppresses one’s appetite, and as a result, mountaineers struggle to take in enough calories. So a big part of my training preparation was long-duration workouts over many hours at a low intensity on an empty stomach.

I started my training a year ago. Before work I go for early morning runs. It started off as jogging to 5km runs for three months to regular 10km runs. I have been doing this at least 5 times a week now and it has helped me stay concentrated, manage a steady pace, improve my breathing and increase my fitness levels ahead of the expedition. I even managed to complete a half marathon in Tashkent in April! I ran  21.2km in 4 hours! It was my first marathon in the soaring heat, but I managed to pull through and it was a proud moment. Along with endurance training, climbing conditioning is another important aspect of preparing for a mountaineering expedition. Climbing conditioning exercises often work as endurance exercises, but as i was told by many veteran mountaineers, the main point of them is to strengthen all of the muscle groups that will be required to make steady and steep ascents, some of which are not commonly used in day-to-day activities.

Most of us, including me, don’t have the opportunity to go to the mountains on a regular basis. So instead I tried to simulate the physical challenges that i would encounter when climbing a mountain, such as climbing stairs with a weighted backpack, which i would aim to do at least once a month. Climbing and mountaineering require far more endurance than they do sheer strength. So another aspect of my training focused on strengthening my core and mimicking ranges of motions that would be used for mountaineering. This would include 2 hour sessions of yin and hot yoga on the weekends to stretch my muscles to develop strength and balance. Another main reason for this flexibility training was to also reduce soreness and lower my recovery time.

My primary goal is to achieve a basic level of fitness and carry out regular exercise that would fit in my lifestyle and that would work best for my body. Another key part of my training is mental training. Developing mental toughness has been an equally important part of my training which  includes practising visualisation exercises, breathing exercises and meditation.

Those who know about my plans have asked why? Why do I want to push myself so hard? And why do I want to put myself in a risky environment? These are questions that I ask myself and I’m not sure that I have the full answer yet. But I know that I feel strongly on three beliefs:  Don’t let your dreams be just dreams; I wanted to challenge myself to achieve something that I didn’t know would be possible for me; and life is far too short to wait for the perfect moment, we need to take the moment and make it perfect.

It is often easier to be focused on the menial day to day and get through the to do lists. Sometimes this is essential because of things that are impacting our personal lives. But when we can dream, and work to turn those dreams into plans and then into reality, we can push ourselves to do far more than we ever imagined we could. Whilst I worry about aspects of what lies ahead, I would worry far more if I didn’t push myself, if I didn’t take a chance. I know it will be hard, I know there will be moments during the training and on the expedition where I feel it is impossible but I also know that there will be moments of pure joy, wonder and delight and I believe it will make me a better person at the end of it.

We can always think of reasons not to do things or to delay doing things. I could wait another year, to improve my skills further, or to train more. But there is unlikely to ever be a perfect moment to do things. The last few years have taught me that life is far too short. We are so lucky to be able to have time in our wonderful world and we should maximise that to the full.

Oxus Expedition featured in Caravanserai Magazine

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The Oxus Expedition: Source to Sea

The history of exploring the Oxus, and of the Oxus Expedition, is integrally linked with the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, an organisation founded in 1901 as the Central Asia Society. It is therefore a great source of pride and pleasure that Charlie Portlock, Editor of the RSAA’s magazine, Caravanserai, invited Sophia Burna-Asefi to write an article about our expedition plans. The article was published in Caravanserai Issue 3, the theme of which was rivers; and Sophia’s article was accompanied by materials from the RSAA’s own archive and a short commentary about Angus Hamilton’s early 20th century expedition, which he presented to the Society in April 1906.
You can read the full issue of Caravanserai here.

The woman using tourism to fight for female empowerment in Tajikistan

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Journalist Dani Redd profiled Oxus Expedition’s team member Miskola Abdulloeva for Much Better Adventures.

First stop: Lake District!

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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River
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Three Women, One River

First stop: Lake District national park!

For our first training and bonding weekend, the Oxus Expedition team headed north to the Lake District National Park, one of the wildest and most beautiful places in the UK.

Wastwater, England's deepest lake
Wastwater, Lake District
The fells of the Lake District National Park
Lake District National Park

The Lake District National Park in Cumbria is home to England’s highest mountain, Scafell Pike (978m), and since 2017 it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Alfred Wainwright — the most famous chronicler of Lake District walks — lists 214 fells (hills and mountains), and there are 16 lakes, if you include the waters and meres. It is undoubtedly one of the most scenic parts of the British Isles, and though Daniel Defoe once described the area as “the wildest, most barren and frightful of any that I have passed over in England,” it has been a popular tourist spot since the late 18th century. Towns such as Windermere and Kendal are busy in the summer months, but you never have to go far into the fells to find unspoilt views and a sense of peace.

We chose the Lake District for our pre-expedition training session because it offers some of the most varied and strenuous hiking in the UK. Yes, even Scafell Pike is a mini mountain compared to the soaring peaks of the Pamir and Hindu Kush, but as COVID-19 prevented us going further afield, we had limited options. And, in honesty, it was not such a hardship: the Lake District is stunning, there’s no risk of altitude sickness, and if you plan your route carefully you’ll be rewarded with a pub at the end of the day.

Although we had met once over lunch in London, this was the first occasion we’d spent any length of time together as a team. It’s always a bit nerve-racking getting to know new people, especially if you’ve already committed to spending months in each other’s company in challenging environments. During the trip we wanted to talk through some of the expedition’s more thorny subjects (COVID-19, closed borders, security, etc.) and make a call as to whether or not we should try and travel this year. Also on the list were testing out our delivery of clothing and camping equipment from official expedition sponsor Jack Wolfskin, building our fitness, and getting some photos we could use for promotional purposes.

Sophie Ibbotson
Miskola Abdulloeva
Sophia Burna-Asefi

Although the park authorities usually turn a blind eye to wild camping in the Lake District, they prefer if you camp in a designated camping area, which is fair enough. We managed to get space to pitch our three tents on the very edge of Moss Howe Farm, and to Miskola’s delight there were yurts in the field next door! Central Asia had followed us all the way to Witherslack.

Due to COVID, it had been a while since any of us had been away, let alone spent a night under canvas. Thankfully, the instructions on our Skyrocket II Dome tents were easy to follow and the rain gods cut us some slack as we pitched them, in spite of the threatening clouds. 

We have each got a two-person tent for the expedition. This might sound a little excessive, especially as they’re generously sized, but we are going to be sleeping in them a lot, and in all kinds of conditions. If you have had a tough day in the mountains, it makes a real difference if you can retreat to your own private place, with room around you to unpack and relax.

We are going to be reviewing all our kit — including the tents — on the expedition blog, but it will be towards the end of the trip once we have really put them through their paces. The first impressions are good, however: lightweight, well-designed. and quick to erect, even if you’re chatting and not giving the tent your full attention…

Sophie Ibbotson with the Skyrocket II Dome tent
Miskola Abdulloeva with the Skyrocket II Dome tent
Sophia Burna-Asefi with the Skyrocket II Dome tent

There are an almost infinite number of footpaths and bridleways you could walk in the Lake District. Not all of them are marked or easy to spot, however, so an OS map like The English Lakes – South Eastern area is indispensable. We also used the satellite image option on Google Maps now and then to make sure we were on the right track, though once we get to the Wakhan Corridor this won’t really be an option.

One of the most attractive routes we took was a 14.5 mile circuit from Moss Howe Farm which incorporated the Whitbarrow Nature Reserve. The limestone here is 350 million years old, and the rocky outcrops juxtapose with the blue moor grass. From the top of the scar you can see great distances, including across the sands of Morecambe Bay. The nature reserve is known for its orchids and fritillary butterflies, and in the late summer you can apparently hear the skylarks sing.

Sophia and Sophie
Sophia and Sophie
Sophia and Miskola
Sophia and Miskola
Marshmallows on the fire
Marshmallows on the fire

Our attempts at cooking during the training expedition were rudimentary: bacon on the barbecue, and marshmallows over the fire. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, we don’t have our cooking equipment in the UK. We will be using Miskola’s multi-fuel stove and accessories, and collecting them when we arrive in Tajikistan. Airlines don’t tend to look too fondly on passengers flying with gas canisters or liquid fuels. Secondly, there are really good pubs (including The Derby Arms) close to Witherslack. We treated ourselves to classic pub grub like fish and chips and pies, washed down with local cider. This is exactly the kind of food that you feel like after a windswept day on the fells, and it is even more welcome when you haven’t had to cook it. 

Historic Maps of the Wakhan

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Historic Maps of the Wakhan

The Royal Society for Asian Affairs (RSAA) has a huge collection of historic maps, and Central Asia and the Pamirs are particularly well-represented thanks to the society’s links to the Great Game. Below are a few of the maps which include the Wakhan Corridor. You can find out more about the RSAA’s library and archives here.

Turkestan (1868): Wakhan section Map of Turkestan published by the Survey of India, now in the collection of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.
Turkestan (1868)
Turkestan (1868): Front cover Map of Turkestan published by the Survey of India, now in the collection of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.
Turkestan (1868)

1868: The earliest map of the Wakhan I’ve found so far in the RSAA archives is this one published by the Survey of India in 1868. The map is a hand-coloured photozincograph measuring 39 1/4″ x 54 1/2. The Wakhan Corridor is on sheet #2 in the series. 

Of note is that the river is labelled as “Amu Daria Jihoon (Oxus)” and then “Punjah”, spellings which were later standardised as “Amu Darya” and “Panj”. The placing of these names on the map is strange, however, as the Panj doesn’t become the Amu Darya until after its confluence with the Vakhsh, some distance west of Kulyob (Kolab on this map). On this section of the map, therefore, we are only looking at the Panj, not the Amu Darya.

CID 8376.

1882: This isn’t a particularly high quality map, but the interesting thing about it is that it previously belonged to Peter Hopkirk (1930-2014), who wrote extensively about the Great Game. I like to think that he used this map when writing The Great Game: On Service in High Asia, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Treasures of Central Asia, and Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Dreams of an Empire in Asia. 

The full name of this map is Turkestan and the Countries Between the British and the Russian Dominions in Asia. It was prepared by James Thomas Walker (Surveyor General of India) and used survey data from both British and Russian officers. The map was published by the Survey of India in four sheets,  and the Wakhan Corridor is on the southeast sheet. Unlike the 1868 map, the extent of the Panj is now property labelled.

 

South East Turkestan (1882), formerly owned by Peter Hopkirk and now in the collection of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.
Turkestan (1882)
Cover of Turkestan (1882), formerly owned by Peter Hopkirk and now in the collection of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.
Turkestan (1882)
Cover of Russian Turkestan (1885)
Russian Turkestan (1885)
Russian Turkestan (1885) - Full map
Russian Turkestan (1885)
Russian Turkestan (1885) - Wakhan section
Russian Turkestan (1885)

1885: Just as the Survey of India was producing maps for the British market, so too were their imperial counterparts in Russia. This very attractive colour map has a very large scale (1:4,200,00) but does still give some topographical details and shows the main course of the river.

Although this map was published in Russia, like many of the others in the RSAA’s collection it was purchased from Edward Stanford in Covent Garden. You can see the label on the cover. Stanfords, which was established in 1853, still exists and remains one of the best places in the world to buy maps and travel guides.

 CID 8383.

1896:  Lord Curzon (later the Viceroy of India) travelled to Afghanistan and the Pamir in 1894, and finding the source of the Oxus was one of his key objectives. He did find a source — the ice cave at the top of the Wakhjir River — and he marks it confidently on this map, which was compiled under his direction and published in 1896. For this discovery, he was awarded a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society. 

This semi-colour map has a 1:100,000,000 scale and is backed on cloth. It measures 24″ x 24 1/2″ and is finely detailed, even showing some of the smaller rivers and settlements in the Wakhan. This map is important because it is the first to identify the Wakhjir as the Oxus’ source, a claim which we expect to disprove during the Oxus Expedition.

CID 7852

The Pamir and Adjoining Territories (1896), from the collection of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.
The Pamir and Adjoining Territories (1896)
The Pamir and Adjoining Territories (1896)
The Pamir and Adjoining Territories (1896)
The Pamir and Adjoining Territories (1896)
The Pamir and Adjoining Territories (1896)
The Pamir and Adjoining Territories (1896)
The Pamir and Adjoining Territories (1896)
The Pamir and Adjoining Territories (1896)
The Pamir and Adjoining Territories (1896)
The Pamir (1901)
The Pamir (1901)
The Pamir (1901)
The Pamir (1901)

1901:  Five years after Curzon’s map of the Pamir was published, France’s Army Geographical Serviced published their own map of the same region in French. It is likely that they used some of Curzon’s survey data, and perhaps also information from Gabriel Bonvalot’s expedition which took place a few years earlier.

The scale of this map (1:1,000,000) is the same as Curzon’s map. Every single village seems to be marked, and great attention has been paid to the naming of places, even if in some cases the spelling is a curious French-Persian hybrid.

This map measures 17 1/2″ x 21 1/2″. It is a semi-coloured heliographic print.

CID 8389

1930: By the 1930s, the Survey of India clearly thought it was about time that they publish another map of the Pamir, incorporating the knowledge obtained from expeditions in the early 20th century. As with previous maps, it has a scale of 1:1000,000 and was printed in semi-colour. This sheet (17 1/2″ x 14 1/4″) was number 12 in the series.

What is clearer on this map than on previous ones, in part because of the colouring, is the size and position of the various water resources. The extent of Lake Chaqmaqtin is much easier to see, for example, as are the huge number of glaciers around Curzon’s ice cave at the top of the Wakhjir Valley. You can see the confluences of the main rivers, too.

CID 8540

The Pamir (1930)
The Pamir (1930)
The Pamir (1930)
The Pamir (1930)
The Pamir (1941)
The Pamir (1941)
The Pamir (1941)
The Pamir (1941)
The Pamir (1941)
The Pamir (1941)
The Pamir (1941)
The Pamir (1941)

1941: The final Survey of India map of The Pamirs dates from 1941. Priorities shifted during WWII and in 1947 India gained its independence, so surveying and protecting “The Jewel in the Crown” was no longer on the agenda. 

Unsurprising for a map made in the dying days of the British Empire, Zorkul is still marked as Lake Victoria. The Wakhan’s southern border with what became Pakistan is well-defined, but there is no demarcation of the corridor’s northern edge.

There are two copies of this map in the RSAA archives, one in better condition than the other. The map is sheet NJ 43 in a series,  it measures 17 1/4″ x 21″, and is in semi-colour.

CID 8407, CID 8409

As the archive research aspect of the Oxus Expedition progresses, it is likely that I will find more maps of the Wakhan Corridor and I’ll be glad to share them with you then. I will write a separate blog about modern maps of the area, which in some cases are harder to find and less useful than their historic counterparts!

Into the Room of Requirement

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OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River
OXUS
Three Women, One River

Into the Room of Requirement

The Oxus Expedition was born in 2020 in London. Or was it? Arguably it has been more than 100 years in the making, and this is its latest incarnation. Either way, the Royal Society for Asian Affairs has a lot to answer for!

I call this “The Room of Requirement”. In fact, it is the archives of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs (RSAA). But just like its namesake at Hogwarts, it’s impossible to know exactly what is inside. You step through the door with a question, or a problem, and somewhere inside will be the solution. It could be a map, a photograph, a glass slide, or a hand written letter; or it could be a life-changing idea.  

In January 2020, on a cold and miserable day, I went into the archives looking for early 20th century photographs of Tajikistan’s historical sites. At least that’s what I thought I was looking for. The Room of Requirement knew better. Instead, I left with an arm load of maps of the Wakhan Corridor and a copy of Lord Curzon’s The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus. It was time to start preparing for the ultimate Oxus Expedition.

The RSAA was founded in 1901 as the Central Asian Society. It was at the height of “The Great Game” (or, as the Russians prefer to call it, “The Tournament of Shadows”) when the imperial British and Russian powers were competing for influence and territory in Central Asia. Afghanistan and what are now the five Central Asian republics — the ‘Stans — was their battleground. 

But in the campaigns they led here, diplomacy and espionage were even more important than physical warfare. The heroes of the day were just as likely to be bureaucrats, geographers, and spies as they were to be military officers, though there were plenty of them as well. When they returned to London (or, in the Russians’ case, to Saint Petersburg), they wanted somewhere to meet like-minded people with shared experiences, to be able to discuss privately what could not yet be in the public domain, and to archive their materials for posterity. The Central Asian Society (which became the Royal Central Asian Society in 1931, and in 1975 changed its name to the RSAA) was founded by Dr Cotterell Tupp, Captain Francis Younghusband, Colonel Algernon Durand, and General Sir Thomas Gordon to meet this need. Lord Curzon was one of the earliest members. 

Every major Great Game expedition and related geographical discovery was reported at an RSAA public lecture and recorded in the journal Asian Affairs. Hand-drawn and printed maps, letters and memoirs, sketches glass slides, and photographs were conserved for future use in the archives. The library grew and grew. And on the walls hung the great horns of a Marco Polo sheep, the emblem of the society. Most important of all were the materials linked to the source of the River Oxus in Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor, because that was the agreed frontier between the British and Russian Empires. It was these same materials I chanced upon in 2020, and from which I realised that the true source of the river was still to be proved.

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