Road that is one of highest in world with ‘breathtakingly beautiful’ trips | World | News
The “world’s highest road trip” that was once part of the Silk Road has been described as “breathtakingly beautiful”.
Karakoram Highway in Pakistan is an 810-mile road which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab province to the Khunjerab Pass in Gilgit-Baltistan.
It was named in Time Out’s top eleven “most breathtakingly beautiful road trips around the world” alongside Route 66 in America and the Garden Route in South Africa.
The highway is one of the highest paved roads in the world, passing through the Karakoram mountain range at an elevation of 4,714m above sea level.
It is a popular tourist attraction and was described by Time Out as “the closest you’re going to get to a road trip in actual heaven”.
Built in 1966, the road has been called the “experience of a lifetime”, filled with mountain views and a deep sense of history.
The region includes some of the world’s largest glaciers like the Baltoro and Siachen Glaciers, two of the Eight-thousanders (mountains taller than 26,000 ft) and several rivers and lakes.
Karakoram Highway is known as the “eighth wonder of the world” due to its difficult construction process, but despite being a “conveyor belt of beauty,” it is not for the faint of heart.
The terrain is rugged with heavy snow in winter seeing the whole thing shut down for months, while summer monsoons cause occasional landslides. The best time to visit is spring or early autumn.
It has given mountaineers and cyclists easier access to the mountains, glaciers, and lakes in the area. The highway provides access to Gilgit and Skardu, two major hubs for mountaineering expeditions in the region.
At the Khunjerab Pass, the road crosses into China with the border open only between May and December, becoming a Chinese national highway.
Also known as the Friendship Highway in China, it was built by the governments of Pakistan and China. Construction was started in 1962 and was completed in 1978.
About 810 Pakistanis and about 200 Chinese workers died, mostly in landslides and falls, while building the highway.
