Mountain · Afghanistan
Noshaq
Noshaq is the highest mountain in Afghanistan, an ice-covered pyramid in the Hindu Kush and the westernmost seven-thousander on the whole planet. Its name means new horn.
Picture credit: Louis Meunier (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Noshaq?
Noshaq is part of the Hindu Kush.
You will find it in: Afghanistan.
Summit: 36.432° N, 71.828° E
The story behind it
Noshaq is the second-highest summit of the Hindu Kush, after Tirich Mir at 7 708 metres, and the highest point of Afghanistan. The border with Pakistan runs right across it: the northern and western flanks lie in Afghanistan, the southern and eastern ones in Pakistan. No other mountain above 7 000 metres stands further west anywhere on Earth, which makes Noshaq the last of the giants on the way towards Europe. Its Dari name, Nowshākh, is usually read as new horn. On 17 August 1960 the Japanese climbers Toshiaki Sakai and Goro Iwatsubo reached the top by the southeast ridge, on an expedition led by Yajiro Sakato. In February 1973 Andrzej Zawada and Tadeusz Piotrowski from Poland climbed it in the middle of winter, and that was the first time anyone had stood on a 7000-metre summit in that season. The mountain is not one point but a row of them: Noshaq East reaches 7 480 metres, and a central and a western summit follow along the same ridge.
Find it on the globe
Noshaq is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How high is Noshaq?
Noshaq reaches 7 492 metres. That makes it the highest mountain in Afghanistan and the second highest of the Hindu Kush, three metres short of Tajikistan's Ismoil Somoni Peak and more than 200 metres below Tirich Mir.
Where is Noshaq?
In the eastern Hindu Kush, on the line between Afghanistan and Pakistan, close to the narrow Wakhan corridor. The usual Afghan approach starts from Badakhshan and the Qadzi Deh glacier.
What was special about the winter climb of 1973?
On 13 February 1973 Andrzej Zawada and Tadeusz Piotrowski reached the summit, the first time anyone had climbed a 7000-metre mountain in winter. Their team had waited out weeks of darkness and cold in camps on the ridge, and the idea of winter climbing on the highest peaks started here.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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