Hunza Gojal Upper Valley and Wakhan Corridor Borderlands
Explore Gojal — the uppermost section of the Hunza Valley between Attabad Lake and the Khunjerab Pass, a region of Wakhi-speaking herding communities, ancient forts, and extraordinary mountain scenery where the Karakoram, Hindu Kush, and Pamir ranges converge and the borders of Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan come within kilometers of each other.
- 1
Gulmit Village Cultural Center
Gulmit — the main village of upper Gojal and the administrative center of the region, where the Wakhi herding culture meets the Ismaili Muslim faith in a community that sends its children to school and its young people to universities in Gilgit and Islamabad, the old and new coexisting in the mountain village.
- 2
Ghulkin Glacier Walk
Walk to the Ghulkin Glacier from Ghulkin village — the accessible glacier descending close to the road in the upper Hunza Valley, the walk across the lateral moraine to the ice face giving a close experience of the Karakoram glacial landscape that defines the hydrology of the entire region below.
- 3
Shimshal Valley Junction
The junction of the Shimshal road with the Karakoram Highway — the turning for the most remote permanently inhabited valley in Pakistan, the road visible climbing the gorge toward Shimshal, the junction marking the gateway to the upper Karakoram wilderness that stretches to the Chinese border.
- 4
Tupopdan Peak View
View of Tupopdan (6,106m) from the Gojal plateau — the knife-edge peak rising above the valley in a dramatic rock needle that looks impossibly steep from below, the mountain visible from the Karakoram Highway as the road curves around the lake and enters the upper valley.
- 5
Murkushi Border Viewpoint
The high viewpoint in Gojal from which the convergence of the three mountain ranges is visible — the Hindu Kush ridges to the west (Afghanistan), the Karakoram to the north and east (China), and the Pamir spurs beyond, the geopolitical meeting point of three countries visible as a landscape of extraordinary mountain complexity.
- 6
Upper Valley Hot Springs
The hot springs in the upper Gojal valley — the geothermal features that emerge from the tectonic activity of the Karakoram, the warm water flowing from the cliff face into pools used by local communities for centuries, the springs marking the geological restlessness of a mountain range still actively rising.