Northern Areas Index Page

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The Northern Areas icon is taken from a photo of the `Hunza Sacred Rock'. This large rock formation near the Hunza River below central Hunza valley is carved with many petroglyphs. This image is an ibex, an important game and symbolic animal of the high mountain zone.

There are two main sections to the Northern Areas pages:

The Karakoram Highway and the ride from Islamabad to Gilgit

The settled valleys - Gilgit, Hunza, and Gojal which tell of each area, the people, and our hikes

The Karakoram Highway ride of 22 hours is split between two pages:

KKH - Ascent with pictures from the lower Indus gorge, Besham, and of the bus

KKH - Kohistan with pictures of the Indus gorge, high mountains, and varied landscape of the ride

In the Northern Areas, we first visited Gilgit. This town is a central place, with traders and travelers coming through this town on their way. I have pictures of the town and some shops, as we spent most of the time here adjusting to altitude and post-bus-traumatic-disorder.

From Gilgit, we went to the lovely Hunza Valley. This is split into two rough geographic divisions, Lower Hunza [Hunza Proper] and Upper Hunza, called by the locals Gojal.

To the left is Ultar, a peak north of the central Hunza Valley

In Hunza Proper, there are three pages:

Hunza Central - Detailing the main villages and central valley along with a bit about the people of Hunza.
Hunza Altit - We stayed over a ridge from the central tourist area, in this small village with warm people, a historic fort, and lovely views.
Hunza Eagles Nest - From Altit, we hiked up to this amazing lookout, where we spent the night in this village - the highest occupied village in this area. Great valley and mountain views from a nearby plateau.

In Gojal there are two pages:

Gulmit - A small village where we hiked to Gulmit glacier, an old hilltop fort, and met some farmers
Pasu - Furthest north on the journey - We hiked to Pasu glacier, Borit lake, and met some shepherds.

I am refining the description and stories of this area, which proved to be the most phenomenal place I visited in Pakistan. This region of northern Kashmir holds spectacular scenery and very hospitable inhabitants, who seemed to enjoy showing us their beautiful lives.

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