Kongur Tagh

Kongur Tagh or Kongkoerh (Kyrgyz: Коңур Тоо; Uyghur: قوڭۇر تاغ‎, Коңур Тағ, meaning "Brown Mountain"; Mongolian: Хонгор Таг, (Хонгор/Kongur/Kongur is Mongolian word for the color Mongolians use for Buckskin colored horse) Hongor Tag; simplified Chinese: 公格尔峰; traditional Chinese: 公格爾峰; pinyin: Gōnggé'ěr Fēng; also referred to as Kongur), is at 7,649 m, the highest peak in the Pamir Mountains, and also the highest mountain wholly within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.

Kongur Tagh Karakoram Highway Kashgar Xinjiang China
Kongur Tagh (left) and Kongur Tiube (slightly to the right) as seen from the Karakoram Highway on the way from Kashgar to lake Karakul
Kongur Tagh (towards the right edge of the photo) and Kongur Tiube (center) as seen from lake Karakul.
The Kongur Tagh range in 2005. The summits visible from the viewpoint on the Karakoram highway to the south west are those of Kuk Sel (6,715 metres) and Kezi Sel (6,525 metres), about 5 km and 7 km south of the main summit.
Kongur Tagh
Kongkhoerh
South face of Kongur Tagh
Highest point
Elevation7,649 m (25,095 ft)[1]
Ranked 37th
Prominence3,585 m (11,762 ft)[1]
Ranked 49th
Isolation240 km (150 mi) 
ListingUltra
Coordinates38°35′39″N 75°18′48″E[1]
Geography
Kongur Tagh
Location in Xinjiang
LocationAkto County, Xinjiang, China
Parent rangePamir Mountains
Climbing
First ascent1981 by British team
Easiest routeRock/snow/ice climb

This is the highest mountain outside of the Hindu Kush/Karakoram and Himalayan ranges.

Kongur Tagh peak. 2011

Geography

Kongur Tagh is within a range called the Kongur Shan (Chinese: 公格尔山; pinyin: Gōnggé'ěr Shān.) Kongur Tagh is located just north of Muztagh Ata and visible from Karakul Lake. Some sources use "Kongur Shan" mistakenly to refer to the peak itself. The Kongur Shan range, including Muztagh Ata, is separated by the major Yarkand River valley from the Kunlun Mountains and thus is included in the "Eastern Pamirs".[2] Kongur Tagh is the highest peak in the Pamirs. Due to its remoteness and being hidden by nearby peaks, Kongur was not discovered by Europeans until 1900. However, the building of the Karakoram Highway from Pakistan to China, which runs past nearby Tashkurgan and Karakul Lake, has now made it more accessible.

Administratively, the Kongur Range is within Akto County.

Climbing history

The first attempt to climb Kongur Tagh was made in 1956 but the party aborted the attempt when it realized it was beyond their abilities.

The first ascent of Kongur Tagh was completed in 1981 by a British expedition consisting of Chris Bonington, Al Rouse, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker.[3]

Elevation

Kongur Tagh is 7,649 meters high. Some sources list the peak's elevation as 7,719 meters, but this is likely incorrect. The main summit is close enough in height to the 7,625-meter-high northeastern summit that climbers standing on the main summit could not tell which was taller, thus it can not be 7,719 meters high.[4]

Kongur Tiube
Kongur Tagh II peak

Kongur Tagh, which means "a brown mountain" in Uyghur language, has a significant subpeak known as Kongur Tiube (Chinese: 公格尔九别峰 which means in the local language "the mountain with a white cap",[5] also Kongur Tiubie / Jiubie and Kungur Tjube Tagh), 38°36′57″N 75°11′44″E; elevation = 7,530 m (24,705 ft).Ranked 47th[6] It is moderately independent, with a topographic prominence of 840 m (2,756 ft). It was first climbed in 1956.

Footnotes
  1. "China II: Sinkiang - Xinjiang". Peaklist.org. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
  2. N. O. Arnaud; M. Brunel; J. M. Cantagrel; P. Tapponnier (1993). "High cooling and denudation rates at Kongur Shan, Eastern Pamir (Xinjiang, China)". Tectonics. 12 (3): 1335–1346. doi:10.1029/93TC00767.
  3. Ward (1983), pp. 146-148.
  4. "Summit Elevations: Frequent Internet Errors". www.viewfinderpanoramas.org. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
  5. Kongur Jiubie Peak Archived 2013-12-15 at the Wayback Machine (in Chinese)
  6. Kongur Tagh-Muztagh Ata Topographic Map, 1:100,000, by the Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, ISBN 7-80545-148-6.

See also

References
  • Ward, Michael. (1983). "The Kongur Massif in Southern Sinkiang." The Geographical Journal, Vol. 149, No. 2 (Jul., 1983), pp. 137–152.
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