Skardu: the valley the Karakoram opens onto

A short history

The Balti name is the plainest thing about the town: it means something like a lowland between two high places. Europeans writing in the seventeenth century called it Eskerdou.

For roughly seven hundred years the valley was ruled by the Maqpon dynasty, and it was a Maqpon ruler, Maqpon Bokha, who is credited with founding the town around 1500. The dynasty's high point came under Ali Sher Khan Anchan, who from about 1580 pushed the kingdom out to Gilgit in one direction and Ladakh in the other, taking Leh around 1594. Akbar had conquered Baltistan a few years earlier, in 1586, and the region spent long stretches balanced between larger neighbours.

That balance ended in 1839, when Zorawar Singh's Dogra forces beat the Balti army and took the fort above the town. Skardu stayed under Dogra rule until Partition; the siege of Skardu ended on 14 August 1948.

Underneath all of that is an older layer. Baltistan was Buddhist from around the seventh century and did not become predominantly Muslim until the seventeenth. You can still go and put your hand on the evidence, which is the best reason to visit the Manthal rock.

Places worth your time

Kharpocho Fort

The fort stands about fifteen metres above the town and is usually dated to the eighth century. The name translates roughly as king of forts. It is a short, steep climb and the reason to do it is the view down onto the Indus, which from up there stops looking like a river and starts looking like a road.

Manthal Buddha Rock

A large boulder on the edge of town carved with a standing Buddha and inscriptions, left over from the valley's Buddhist centuries. It takes twenty minutes and it recalibrates the whole trip. This is not a ruin behind glass; it is a rock in a field.

Shangrila and Upper Kachura

Two lakes at around 2,500 metres, twenty minutes apart. Lower Kachura is the one the postcards call Shangrila. Go at first light, before the day boats start, and it is a genuinely quiet place.

Katpana cold desert

Sand dunes at over 2,000 metres with snow peaks behind them, which is a combination that takes a moment to accept. The hour before sunset is when the light does the work.

Shigar and Khaplu

An hour and three hours out respectively, each with a restored valley palace and orchards still being worked around it. Khaplu sits up the Shyok and is worth the drive on its own.

Satpara Lake

Six miles from town and the source of its drinking water since the dam was finished in 2011. It is also the road up onto Deosai.

Before you go

Flights from Islamabad run when the weather allows and cancel when it does not; the road up the Karakoram Highway takes two days and always works. We plan a spare day either way. June to September for Deosai and the high valleys; April and May for blossom, with the plateau still shut.