Where three mountain ranges meet — the Karakoram Highway hub at the junction of Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and Himalayas
Gilgit is the capital of Gilgit-Baltistan and the main hub on the Karakoram Highway (KKH) — the world's highest paved international road, built by China and Pakistan through the mountains along the ancient Silk Road. The city sits at 1,500m at the confluence of the Gilgit and Hunza rivers, at the exact geographic junction where the Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and western Himalaya ranges converge — the highest mountain density on earth. Hunza Valley is 100km north; Skardu and K2 access lies 170km east.
Gilgit's strategic position on the Silk Road made it contested throughout history: it was ruled successively by Buddhist kingdoms, the Dogra Maharajas of Kashmir, the British Indian political agents, and Pakistan since 1947. The Gilgit Agency was a special administrative unit of British India governed by Political Agents who played the Great Game against Russian expansion from a remote base in the mountains. The Gilgit Manuscripts — Buddhist texts discovered in 1931 in a ruined stupa — are among the oldest surviving Sanskrit manuscripts in the world (5th–6th century CE), now held in Delhi and…