page_title: Kulma Pass
hierarchical_section_title: Kulma Pass
caption_attribution_description: English: NJ 43-6 Murgab, Soviet Union; China [Tajikistan; China] (22.1MB)
context_page_description: The Kulma Pass or Qolma Pass, also referred to as Karasu Pass, is a mountain pass across the Pamir Mountains on the border between Murghob District, Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China. Asian Highway AH66 runs through the pass, which provides for the only modern day overland border crossing along the 450 km boundary between the two nations.
  The pass has an elevation of 4,362.7 metres and opens from the north to the southeast, and is 500 m wide from north to south and 1 km in length from east to west with a gentle incline not exceeding 20 degrees. On the Tajik side, the pass is 80 km by road to Murghab and about 850 km to Dushanbe. On the Chinese side, the pass is 13.9 km from Karasu, a port of entry on the Karakorum Highway which leads to Tashkurgan and Kashgar. The pass is open from the 16th to the 30th day of each month from May to November.
  The pass was closed for many years due to political tensions between the Soviet Union and China, and then the Tajikistani Civil War.
context_section_description: The Kulma Pass (Tajik: Перевал Кульма, Chinese: 阔勒买山口) or Qolma Pass, also referred to as Karasu Pass, is a mountain pass across the Pamir Mountains on the border between Murghob District, Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region in Tajikistan and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China.  Asian Highway AH66 runs through the pass, which provides for the only modern day overland border crossing along the 450 km boundary between the two nations.
  The pass has an elevation of 4,362.7 metres (14,313 ft) and opens from the north to the southeast, and is 500 m wide from north to south and 1 km in length from east to west with a gentle incline not exceeding 20 degrees. On the Tajik side, the pass is 80 km by road to Murghab and about 850 km to Dushanbe.  On the Chinese side, the pass is 13.9 km from Karasu (卡拉苏口岸), a port of entry on the Karakorum Highway which leads to Tashkurgan (60–70 km) and Kashgar (220 km).  The pass is open from the 16th to the 30th day of each month from May to November.
  The pass was closed for many years due to political tensions between the Soviet Union and China, and then the Tajikistani Civil War.  In 1997, China and Tajikistan signed an agreement to develop a commercial corridor between the two countries through the pass.  The opening of the pass reduced cargo travel time between the two countries by ten to fifteen days, obviating lengthy detours into Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
caption: Map including the Kulma Pass area (1988)
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "11752", "Image ImageLength": "8802", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "i2s Digibook Scanner", "Image Model": "Suprascan A0 10000 RGB", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2011:02:23 10:42:34", "Image ExifOffset": "324", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "474", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7585", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3961"}