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Present-day roads in many sections coincide with the ancient caravan tracks. This equally relates to the main motor road of Tajikistan - the Pamir highway. This highway is the basis of the Trans-Tajikistan motorway that stretches for 1300 km. The point-to-point passage from the Uzbek border to the Chinese border will become effective after all the reconstruction of the road and construction of its new sections are completed. For accomplishment of this task the government of Tajikistan engaged a number of foreign investors and contractors.

The Trans-Tajikistan motorway starts from the banks of the Syrdarya - the second largest river in Central Asia. Farther on all the roads swerving from the main line inevitably come to Anzob mountain pass across the Gissar Range. This mountain pass plays a pivotal role on the western section of the Trans-Tajikistan motorway. It is a peculiar natural stone barrier 200 km long, which divides the north and the south of Tajikistan and serves as a watershed for the country's largest rivers - the Amudarya and Zerafshan rivers. The height of the pass is 3,372 above sea level. It takes about 1.5-2 hours for the cars to reach the highest point of the pass driving along the serpentine way. As early as 1989 there was started the construction of five-kilometre tunnel through the mountain range. However, the works were executed at a slow pace due to financial difficulties.

In 2003 the construction firm "SOBIR" from Iran won the international tender for completion of the tunnel. The total cost of the unique project is 110 million US dollars. On completion of the construction of the tunnel Tajikistan will be able to provide 24-hour transport communication between the north and the south of the country and will facilitate the access to the westward neighbouring countries. Besides, it will provide the shortest route for direct transit across Tajikistan between South-Eastern Asia and Europe.

After passing the Gissar Range the motorway descends into the Gissar Valley where the capital of Tajikistan - Dushanbe is located. Here the motorway heads for the south and then swerves to the east in order to cross the vast mountain area of the Pamirs - a sort of cold desolate wilderness with precipitations not exceeding those of the Sahara desert. Having surmounting the Sarykul range, in some points reaching the height of more than 6,000 metres above sea level, Trans-Tajikistan motorway reaches the border with China.

The eastern Pamirs, vividly described in Marco Polo's travel notes, still remains a rather under-populated area, and in most of its sections the motorway runs at the height of 3000-4000 metres above sea level. In the western Pamirs the motorway runs through similarly virgin solitudes with typical altitude drops and clouds floating so low that sometimes drivers see them not in the sky but directly beneath the feet. Here and there, nestling against the mountainside, there are fortress-like houses and green patches of cultivated land with glittering lines of irrigation canals coming close to them. Abundance of exotics makes the Trans-Tajikistan motorway rather attractive to tourists.

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