Roof of the World

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File:Central Asia Physical.jpg

Physical map of Central Asia from the Caucasus in the northwest, to Mongolia in the northeast.

The Roof of the World or Top of the World is a metaphoric epithet or phrase used to describe the highest region in the world, also known as High Asia. The term usually refers to the mountainous interior of Asia, including the Pamirs, the Himalayas, the Tibetan Plateau, the Hindu Kush, the Tian Shan, the country of Nepal, and the Altai Mountains.

Attested usage

The British explorer John Wood, writing in 1838, described Bam-i-Duniah (Roof of the World) as a "native expression" (presumably Wakhi),<ref>Keay, John (1983) When Men and Mountains Meet Template:ISBN; p. 153</ref> and it was generally used for the Pamirs in Victorian times: In 1876, another British traveler, Sir Thomas Edward Gordon, employed it as the title of a book<ref>Sir Thomas Edward Gordon, The Roof of the World: being a narrative of a journey over the high plateau of Tibet to the Russian frontier and the Oxus sources on Pamir, Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1876</ref> and wrote in Chapter IX:

Older encyclopedias also used "Roof of the World" to describe the Pamirs:

• Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. (1911): "PAMIRS, a mountainous region of central Asia...the Bam-i-Dunya ('The Roof of the World')".<ref name=EB>Template:Cite EB1911</ref>
• The Columbia Encyclopedia, 1942 edition: "the Pamirs (Persian = roof of the world)".<ref>The Columbia Encyclopedia; 1942 edition, p. 1335</ref>
• Hachette, 1890: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, French for "Roof of the World (Pamir)".<ref>Guillaume Capus (1890), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Paris: Hachette et Cie. = Bibliographia Marmotarum. Ramousse R., International Marmot Network, Lyon, 1997. Template:ISBN

Guillaume Capus</ref>

• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Leipzig 1928–1935: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (German: "roof of the world, term describing the Pamir highlands"),<ref>{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 15th ed., Leipzig 1928–1935, vol. 4 (1929), p. 319.</ref> and (in translation): "Pamir highlands, the nodal point of the mountain systems of Tien-Shan, Kun-lun, Karakoram, the Himalayas and Hindukush, and therefore called the roof of the world."<ref>{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, vol. 14 (1933), p. 96.</ref>

With the awakening of public interest in Tibet, the Pamirs, "since 1875 ... probably the best explored region in High Asia",<ref name=EB/> went out of the limelight and the description "Roof of the World" has been increasingly applied to Tibet<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the Tibetan Plateau, and occasionally, especially in French ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), even to Mount Everest,<ref>{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.</ref>Template:Fcn but the traditional use is still alive.<ref>The Pamirs, a region known to locals as Pomir – "the roof of the world".</ref>Template:Fcn

File:High Asia Mountain Ranges.jpg

Satellite image of the western part of the Roof of the World: Tian Shan to the north, Pamirs central, the Hindu Kush to the south, Kunlun Shan to the east, and Karakoram, Ladakh Range and Himalayas to the southeast

File:Pamir panorama.jpg

Panorama of the Pamir Mountains

See also

• Four continents
• Seven Seas
• Mount Imeon
• High-mountain Asia

References

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