Lake Sarez

In February 1911 an earthquake brought a mountainside down into the Murghab valley, burying a village and damming the river behind a natural barrier some five hundred metres high, and the water backed up into a lake around sixty kilometres long. Lake Sarez sits at about three thousand two hundred metres inside the Tajik National Park, which is inscribed by UNESCO. Access needs permits and an organised trip; there is no road and no settlement.

What you actually see

• The Usoi dam - a natural barrier some five hundred metres high left by the 1911 landslide.
• The lake - around sixty kilometres of water held behind it at 3200 metres.
• The buried village - the settlement destroyed by the original landslide.
• The Pamir setting - high mountain country inside the inscribed national park.

When to go

July to September is the only practical window. Permits take time and must be arranged well in advance. Weather at altitude changes fast.

Honest expectations

This is an expedition, not a visit: permits, a guide and several days of travel are required and independent access is not possible. There is no infrastructure of any kind. The stability of the natural dam is a long-standing subject of study and monitoring.

Nearby

Bartang Valley is west, and Murghab is east.