The Precious Land, Gilgit Baltistan
The Precious Land, Gilgit Baltistan
Episode 1:
Gilgit Baltistan, formerly knowns as the Northern areas of Pakistan. It is located 724 Kms far from Islamabad. It borders Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( KPK) province to the west, Afghanistan to the north, China to the Northeast, Azad Kashmir to the southwest and Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir to the east and southeast.
It covers an area of 72,971 sq km (28,174 miles). The current population of Gilgit Baltistan is approximately 1.249 million. It was given the self-governing territory on 29 August 2009.
The historic Silk Route is one of the oldest routes that link this area to the other parts of the world that were mainly used for trade activities. The Karakorum Highway(KKH) is the highest paved international road in the world, which is passing through Gilgit Baltistan. Historically it was one of the ancient silk route but later from 1959 to 1979, the Chinese and Pakistani government built it a mighty zig zag highway which named as Karakorum Highway.
Gilgit Baltistan is one of the most precious land in Pakistan which has unlimited amazing features, which make it unique in all over the world.
Lofty Mountains in GB:
There are 535 named mountains in Gilgit Baltistan.
Gilgit Baltistan is home to some of the world’s highest mountain ranges. At Jaglot valley of GB, the world’s three famous mountain ranges are meeting. Amongst the highest mountain are K2 and Nanga Parbat, which are the most feared mountains in the world. GB is also the home of five out of fourteen 8000 meters high peaks in the world and to more than 50 peaks above 7000 meters. The five highest mountains in GB are K2(Mount Godwin Austen) which is the part of Karakorum range, the world’s 2nd highest peak with 8, 611m height, The Nanga Parbat, which is the part of Himalayan range, the world’s 9th highest peak with 8,126m height, The Gasherbrum 1(K5), which is the part of Baltoro Karakorum, world’s 11th highest peak with 8,080m height, Broad Peak, which is also the part of Baltoro Karakorum, world’s 12th highest peak with 8,047m height and the fifth one is Gasherbrum 2(K4), which is also the part of Baltoro Karakorum, world’s 13th highest peak with 8,035m height.
The other most prominent mountains are Nanga barbet South peak(8,042m), Nanga Parbat Northeast peak( 7,932m), Gasherbrum 3(7,952m), Gasherbrum 4( 7,932m), Masherbrum East (7,821m), Rakaposhi (7,788m), Haramosh (7,397m), Distaghil Sar( 7,885m), Kunyang chhish (7,852m), Malubiting (7,458m), Batura Sar (7,795m) and Karun Koh (6,977m).
Written by Syeda Abeeha Shigri
