Four roads converge on Khorog: from the north, south, southeast, and east. The roads follow turbulent rivers fed by snowmelt and glaciers, connecting the many small villages and farmers who live between them. Arable land is at a premium. Some farms are along the river banks or nearby terraces, where land is naturally flat and soil relatively fertile. Others are located along tributary streams that flow down steep mountain slopes, requiring extensive terracing and pain-staking separation of alluvial cobbles from the soil. And some are in the high glacial valleys where "fields" might be 10x10 meter blocks irregularly tucked between boulders too big to move.
In the first month, I've traveled an hour or so along each of the roads leading out of Khorog. While my eye is usually focused on the geology, I'm also asking: Have people manipulated this terrain, or merely adapted to it? Which is more sustainable? More aesthetically pleasing? Provides greater health and safety? Could things be done differently? And if so, would they really want to change?
...and so, evidently,are humans! Sure takes some amazing farming skills to make a living off farming there!