Khait, Mountain village in Gharm Oblast, Tajikistan.
Khait is a mountain village on the western side of Chokrak Mountain in central Tajikistan. It sits in a valley surrounded by steep slopes and deep gorges that shape the terrain in every direction.
In 1949, an earthquake triggered a massive rock avalanche that buried settlements in the valley below and reshaped the surrounding terrain. The event is recorded as one of the largest geological disasters in the history of Central Asia.
A marble memorial stands in the village and can be visited by anyone passing through. Local families have kept the memory of the disaster alive through oral accounts passed down over generations.
The village sits in a remote mountain area and can only be reached via winding mountain roads, so planning ahead is important. Some sections of the route may become impassable in winter due to snow and ice.
The 1949 rock avalanche moved so much material that it buried entire villages under a layer of stone and debris several meters thick, which was never cleared away. Anyone crossing the area today is effectively walking over the remains of those former settlements.
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