Shigar Fort: History, Tickets and Museum Tour

Shigar Fort, known in Balti as Fong Khar, "the palace on the rock", is the seventeenth-century palace of the Amacha rajas of Shigar, about 30 km and an hour's drive north of Skardu. It was restored between 1999 and 2004 and is now a Serena heritage hotel, with a museum of Balti life in the old audience hall. You don't need a room to see it: day visitors pay an entry fee at the fort to see the museum rooms and the garden, and an hour is enough for both.

This guide covers the fort's history, what the museum tour includes, how tickets work for non-guests, and how to fit Shigar Fort into a day out from Skardu.

Who built Shigar Fort?

For several centuries Shigar was a small kingdom of its own, ruled by the Amacha family. Their history is told in the Shigarnamah, a chronicle written in 1752, and they ruled the valley until the Dogra conquest of Baltistan in the 1840s.

The palace you visit was built in the seventeenth century by the twentieth raja of the line. Local tradition credits Raja Hassan Khan, who is said to have brought carpenters and masons from Kashmir to build it. Kashmiri craftsmanship in a Balti building, on a Balti site, is a large part of what makes the fort worth seeing.

It is built on an enormous boulder, which is where the name comes from. The Shigar stream runs past it, and the old village spreads out around it in lanes and orchards.

How the fort was restored

In 1999 the Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan began restoring the palace, and the work ran until 2004 at a cost of about US$1.4 million. Along the way it revived the valley's traditional carpentry and woodcarving, and in 2009 the community used the same timber-and-stone building to put up a new school in Shigar.

After the restoration the palace became a heritage guesthouse, and it has been run by Serena Hotels, part of the Aga Khan Development Network, since 2008. The project won UNESCO's Asia-Pacific Award of Excellence for heritage conservation in 2006.

The restoration was never only about the fort. The same programme repaired the Amburiq and Khilingrong mosques, rebuilt water and sanitation in the old quarters of the village, and was designed so that the hotel would pay for the building's upkeep. It is one reason Shigar still feels like a working village rather than a set.

What you see on the museum tour

The museum is in the old audience hall, the room where the raja received visitors. What stays with most people is the building rather than the objects in it.

• The audience hall. Carved pillars under a timber ceiling, with some of the finest woodcarving in Baltistan. The hall now holds a small collection of household objects, cooking pots and other things that belonged to the royal family.
• The woodwork. Look at the doors, window frames and screens as you move between rooms. This is the craft the restoration brought back to life, and it is the real exhibit.
• The rock. Walk round the outside as well as through the rooms, to see how the palace sits on its boulder.
• The garden. East of the palace is a formal garden in the Mughal style with a square pavilion, the baradari, among fruit trees. It is the best place for a photograph of the fort's front.

Much of the palace is given over to its thirteen guest rooms, so you won't see everything. Some of the suites were once the royal family's chambers; if you want to see them properly, you have to stay. Our guide to staying at Shigar Fort covers the rooms and what a night costs.

Tickets, timings and how a visit works

Non-guests pay an entry fee at the fort for the museum rooms and the garden. Serena does not publish the fee or any tour times online, and the figures quoted on travel sites vary, so we won't print one. Carry cash, expect a different price for Pakistani and foreign visitors, and pay what is asked on the day. Ask at the gate whether a guided walk round the palace is running; it is the best way to understand what you are looking at.

A few practical points:

• Go in the morning or early afternoon. That leaves time for the mosque and the village, and gets you back to Skardu, or to the dunes, before the light goes.
• It is a working hotel. Keep voices down in the courtyards and don't wander into corridors with guest rooms.
• Photography. Ask before photographing inside the museum rooms, and before photographing staff or other guests.
• Lunch. Serena lists breakfast and dinner hours for its Fong Khar restaurant, not lunch, and it has a table-booking form on its website. If you want to eat at the fort, ask ahead; otherwise there are simple places to eat in Shigar.
• Winter. The fort has been reported to close for part of the winter. Between December and March, ring the hotel before you drive out rather than finding the museum shut.

Contact details, room types and the booking form are on the official Serena Shigar Fort page.

Getting to Shigar Fort

The fort is in Shigar town, about 30 km north of Skardu on the road towards Askole and K2. The road crosses the Indus, passes the Sarfaranga dunes at the mouth of the valley and runs up the Shigar river, and a normal car manages it easily. Allow 45 minutes to an hour each way.

Our Skardu to Shigar guide covers the road, what to see on the way and whether to come back the same evening or stay.

What else to see while you are there

The fort is the centrepiece, but it is worth giving Shigar at least half a day.

• Amburiq Mosque, about ten minutes from the fort, is one of the oldest mosques in Baltistan, traditionally dated to the fourteenth century. Its restoration won a UNESCO award in 2005, and a small museum inside explains its history. It is also a place of prayer, so dress modestly and ask before going in.
• The old village lanes behind the fort, with stone houses, water channels and apricot and walnut trees.
• Sarfaranga and Blind Lake on the way back to Skardu, for dunes in the late-afternoon light.

For the rest of the valley, from the mosques to the Basha valley and its hot springs, see our guide to places to visit in Shigar valley.

Is Shigar Fort worth visiting?

Yes, for almost anyone spending three days or more in Skardu. It is close, the road is easy, and it is one of the best-restored historic buildings in Pakistan. It suits families well: there is little climbing, the garden gives children room to run about, and the altitude is no higher than Skardu.

Keep your expectations in proportion. The museum is small, and the tour is short. What you are really seeing is a lived-in Balti palace and the village around it, and that takes a slow walk as much as a ticket.

If you are choosing between forts, Shigar is the easy half-day and Khaplu Palace the longer trip, three hours up the Shyok. Our overview of forts in Gilgit-Baltistan compares them with Baltit and Altit in Hunza. And if you would rather not plan it yourself, our Skardu and Deosai trip gives a day to Shigar, with the fort, the Amburiq mosque and the orchards behind the village, as part of a week in Baltistan from PKR 90,000 per person.

Frequently asked questions