evidence: Pamirs, highland region of Central Asia. The Pamir mountain area centres on the nodal orogenic uplift known as the Pamir Knot, from which several south-central Asian mountain ranges radiate, including the Hindu Kush, the Karakoram Range, the Kunlun Mountains, and the Tien Shan. Most of the Pamirs lie within Tajikistan, but the fringes penetrate Afghanistan, China, and Kyrgyzstan. The core of the Pamirs is in the highlands of Tajikistan, with the highest mountains in the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous oblast (province). [...] The Pamirs are a combination of east-west and north-south ranges, with the former predominating. The east-west Trans-Alai Range, which forms the northern frame of the Pamirs, falls steeply to the intermontane Alai Valley. The high central part of the Trans-Alai, between the Tersagar Pass on the west and Kyzylart on the east, averages between 19,000 and 20,000 feet (5,800 and 6,100 metres), reaching its highest point at Lenin (Ibn Sīnā) Peak, 23,405 feet (7,134 metres). South from the Trans-Alai extend three north-south ranges. Of these the western, the Akademii (Akademiya) Nauk Range, and the central, Zulumart, are relatively short; the eastern, the Sarykol Range, forms the border between Tajikistan and China. The mountains east of the Sarykol Range are sometimes called the Chinese Pamirs.