six o'clock in the morning
In short , this region is one of the most interesting parts of Central Asia that a tourist can visit . If Major Noltitz had never been beyond Och station , at the foot of the plateau , he knew the district from having studied it on the modern maps and in the most recent books of travels . Among these I would mention those of Capus and Bonvalot -- again two French names I am happy to salute out of France . The major is , nevertheless , anxious to see the country for himself , and although it is not yet six o'clock in the morning , we are both out on the gangway , glasses in hand , maps under our eyes . The Pamir , or Bam-i-Douniah , is commonly called the `` Roof of the World . '' From it radiate the mighty chains of the Thian Shan , of the Kuen Lun , of the Kara Korum , of the Himalaya , of the Hindoo Koosh . This orographic system , four hundred kilometres across , which remained for so many years an impassable barrier , has been surmounted by Russian tenacity .