The trans-Karakoram trade in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Among the paradoxes of the modern world is the way in which change, development and technological progress have rendered the mountain barriers between different regions not less but more formidable than th6y were before. Ancient routes, crossing savage ranges by high and often glaciated passes, could be negotiated by the feet of traders and pilgrims and their pack-animals; but it is only those whose gradient is gentle enough for the road and rail systems on which modern overland communications depend that remain in use today. On many another the ibex and the marmot now roam undisturbed.