Some Of The World's Most Dangerous Roads

One of the most popular lists found in driving magazines are lists about the world's most dangerous roads. 

Found below is a list of ten roads which are considered to be some the world's most dangerous, although these are by no means the only ones to be found around the world.   

  

  

Hell's Gate, Skippers Road, New Zealand

The Anzob Pass in Tajikistan is a 3,400 meter high mountain pass notorious for it’s year round fatal avalanches.

The pass is located between the Tajik capital city of Dushanbe and the country’s second largest city, Khujand.

This unpaved pass, which is part of Tajikstan’s M34 Highway, is located along the rugged Zarafshah Mountains of northern Tajikstan and travels through miles of treeless mountain gorges, year round snow capped peaks, steep sided gullies and wrecked vehicles which didn’t get to finish their trip.

Due to the many fatal accidents which have happened along this pass, the route now includes the newly constructed, five kilometer long, Anzob Tunnel, known locally as the Tunnel of Death, as many locals feel that the tunnel is actually more dangerous than the pass.

The tunnel is handy for traversing the pass during the Winter months however, as it is usually closed due to snow making it impassable.  

Camino de las Yungas, also known as Death Road due to the amount of fatal accidents that have occurred along it’s route.

This sixty one kilometer long, unpaved jungle road, which rises to an ultimate elevation of 4,650 meters above sea level, is located between the cities of La Paz and Coroico in Bolivia and is one of the few roads to travel through Bolivia’s Amazonian rain forest.

This very narrow road, with several tight bends and steep gorges which hug the sides of six hundred meter high cliffs, is also permanently covered by low cloud and littered with wrecked vehicles which never made it to their destination, making it a road definitely not for the feint of heart or the inexperienced driver. 

 

The Cerro de la Muerte is known as the Hill of Death in English. 

This imfamous mountain track, located along part of the vast Pan American Highway, is full of narrow curves, steep cliffs, potholes and low cloud as it makes it’s way precariously between the townships of San Isidro El General and Cartago in central Costa Rica.

The 45 kilometer long road travels across the country’s highest point, located along the Talamanca Mountain Range, at an altitude of 3,451 meters.

Also prone to sudden flash floods and landslides, altitude sickness inducing elevations, several different types of dangerous terrain and extreme diurnal (daytime / night time) temperatures all add to the overall dangers of this very scary road.   

Chalus Road is a 160 kilometer long scenic mountain road which forms part of Iran’s Route 59, located between the Tehran suburb of Karaj and the Caspian Sea resort of Chalus.

This winding mountain road has been carved out of the steep cliffs and overhanging gorges of the Alborz Mountains of Northern Iran.

Although considered one of the world’s most beautiful drives it is also considered to be one of the world’s scariest drives too, owing to it’s tight, narrow bends and very low, overhanging cliffs. 

The Eldoret Highway,  is a 158 kilometer long straight, well maintained, paved highway located between the cities of Nairobi and Nakuru in Kenya.

Sporting fantastic views of Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, the highway should be a perfectly safe road to travel, but for the drunks, drug addicts and dangerous driving habits of the locals who use it, who between them cause over three hundred road deaths a year.  
  

The Pass Through The Anzob Mountains

Fairy Meadows Road is a twelve kilometer long dirt road located at the base camp of the Nanga Parbat Mountains of Gilgit Baltistan in Pakistan.

Located at an elevation of 3,500 meters above sea level, the road links the lush grassland of the Raikot Valley with the small village of Tato in northern Pakistan.

Located along part of the Karakoram Highway, with stunning mountain views of Pakistan’s Fairy Meadows National Park and the Raikot Glacier, this treacherous, narrow road with high sided gorges to one side and sheer sided drops on the other, always manages to find it’s way into the top three of every dangerous roads list.  

  

The Khyber Pass is an iconic, ancient mountain pass  renowned for being part of the ancient Silk Road.

Located in the Spin Ghar Mountains between the city of Peshwar in Pakistan and the city of Jalalabad in Afghanistan, the pass also travels through the mountain village of Landi Kotal where it reaches it’s ultimate elevation of 1,070 meters above sea level. 

The pass is an extremely dangerous route to travel owing to the indigenous tribal chiefs who control the area, fighting between the Pakistan military and the Taliban and U.S drone attacks, therefore the road must not be travelled without first obtaining a travel permit, a local guide and an armed escort, all of which may be obtained in the city of Peshwar, providing the local authorities allow it. 

Don’t forget your passport. 

  

M41 Highway,  also known as the Pamir Highway, is a high mountain road located between the town of Mazari Sharif in Afghanistan and the city of Osh in Kyrgzstan. 

The highway makes it’s way through the four central Asian countries of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan and Kyrgyzstan as it passes through a semi arid, lunar like terrain.

The road travels along the course of several fast flowing rivers and through the Tajik National Park where it skirts some of the shoreline of the 380 square kilometer impact crater lake, Lake Karakul. 

The road is mostly unpaved and is notorious for landslides during the Spring months and fatal avalanches during the Winter months.

The road, which has been in use for millenia and is one of the link roads that once made up part of the ancient Silk Road, passes through the Uzbek town of Termiz, the Krgyz town of Kara Balta and the Tajik capital city, Dushanbe. 

Skipper's Road is a 22 kilometer long gravel road located just outside Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand.

Hand built by four gold mining prespectors in the 1890’s, this very narrow road of steep sided curves follows the course of the Shotover River, once the richest gold bearing river in the world, along the notorious steep sided Skipper’s Canyon.

At the site of Skipper’s Point is the location of Skipper’s Bridge, a precarious, wooden suspension bridge hovering just a few meters above the Shotover River, which is an absolute must for those who love a hair raising ride, but best left alone for those with a more delicate disposition. 

This is a road which takes the utmost concentration and the highest of driving skills to travel and must definitely not to be undertaken by an inexperienced driver or the feint of heart. 

The Tibetan Highway is a one thousand kilometer long stretch of China’s National Highway 219, located between the Chinese city of Yecheng in Xinjiang Province and the city of Lhatse in Tibet.

This high, bleak and remote highway makes it’s way through the isolated Tibetan towns of Rutog, Gar, Drongpa, Saga, Ngamring and Lhatse, travelling through the semi arid Tibetan Plateau, the alpine grassland of Rutog County, the stunning Karakax River Valley and the Taklamakan Desert along the way.

The road, which includes a treacherous mountain pass located at 5,050 meters above sea level, is also renowned for it’s extremely low air pressure, low cloud cover and frigid winds.  
  

The Camino de las Yungas, Bolivia