Karakoram Highway

English

Etymology

From Karakoram mountain range.

Proper noun

Karakoram Highway

1. The highest paved international road in the world, which connects Xinjiang, China to the Northern Areas, Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, through the Khunjerab Pass, at an altitude of 4,693 metres (15,397 feet).
   • 1981, “Pakistan”, in The Far East and Australasia 1981-82‎^[1], 13th edition, Europa Publications, →ISBN, →ISSN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 986, column 1:

     In mid-1978 the 800-km. Karakoram highway was opened, linking Xinjiang province in the People’s Republic of China with Havelian, north of Islamabad, after being under construction for 20 years.

   • 1998, “Pakistan”, in Saul B. Cohen, editor, The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[2], volume 3, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 2340–2341:

     The Karakoram Highway linking Pakistan and China remains a strategic route.

   • 1998, John S. King, Bradley Mayhew, Karakoram Highway (Lonely Planet)‎^[3], 3rd edition, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 9:

     The Karakoram Highway (KKH) connects the Silk Road oasis of Kashgar with Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, via the 4730m Khunjerab Pass, the semi-mythical Hunza Valley and the trading post of Gilgit.

   • 2009, Greg Mortenson, “Introduction”, in Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace through Education in Afghanistan and Pakistan‎^[4], Penguin Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 3:

     In September of 2008, a woman with piercing green eyes named Nasreen Baig embarked on an arduous journey from her home in the tiny Pakistani village of Zuudkhan south along the Indus River and down the precipitous Karakoram Highway to the bustling city of Rawalpindi.

   • 2017 November 3, Rina Saeed Khan, “Pakistan’s glaciers face new threat: Highway’s black carbon”, in Reuters‎^[5], archived from the original on 17 May 2022, APAC:

     This border outpost on the Karakoram Highway, slashed through the glacier-strewn Karakoram mountains to join China and Pakistan by road, boasts a new world record: It has the world’s highest automated bank teller machine.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Karakoram Highway.

Translations

highway

• Urdu: شاہراہِ قَراقَرَم m (śāhrāh-e qarāqaram)

Further reading

• Karakoram Highway at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.
• Saul B. Cohen, editor (1998), “Karakoram Highway”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[6], volume 3, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 1504, column 3