illustris

Sary Moghul is a village in the Alay valley which is bordered in the south by the Pamir Alay whose peaks form the Kyrgyz border with Tajikistan. The village is well known to mountaineers because of the vicinity of Peak Lenin (Koh-I-Garmo), one of the highest summits of the Pamir Alay.

Opposite to the snow-covered ridges of the Pamir Alay, at the valley's northern fringe, a gray truncated cone stands out from the rugged relief. With shrinking distance clouds of dust can be spotted which are popping up at the upper rim. Eventually, the would-be volcano turns out to be a slag heap and tiny, slowly moving spots on its slope emerge as people who are picking pieces of coal out of the debris which is dumped from above. From time to time the rumbling of rolling rocks is accompanied by warning shouts from beneath.

While nomadic herders were relying on dried dung for hibernation, sedentary locals appreciated Russian energy supply in SSSR time.

The impressions of the gallery were taken in August 2012.