For many centuries,caravans have braved these tortuous mountains treading precariously along paths providing shotcuts between the great towns of central Asia and rich markets of south asia.However,the trails were hzardous,angry rivers horrifying to contemplate,and the nature,s storms caused even the most intrepid to quail on the high pases and the desolate gorges.1947, travel in and out of the Northern Pakistan could have been described almost as it had been 15 centuies earlier by the chinese pilgrim Fa Hien in 1400 A.D ;the way is difficult and ruged,running along a bank exceedingly prcipitous.when one approaches the edge of it,his eyes become unsteady,and if wishes to go forward in the same direction,there is no place on which he can place his foot,and beneath are the waters of the river called the Indus.Thus,the traders of yore had trvelled over this route for centuries and carried silk, tea and porcelain from china to be bartered for Gold, Ivory, Jewels and spice from south asia.
It is against this backdrop that Pakistan and China joined hands in 1967 to construct a 900km"Karakoram Higway" on the alignment of the ancient silk rout.for its sheer mountain grandeur and breath-taking panorama of beauty, few places on earth can match the superb landscape though which karakoram highway snakes.A fantastic and unforgettable spectacle is the pasage of the highway along the baltura gaacier,rated as the world,s seventh largest gacier.The khunerab pass which highway crosses, and the nearby mintaka pass kie astride the fabulous ancient silk rout that led from Europe to Asia and over which history,s most famous tourists once travelled.These incclude the venetian trader marcopolo, after whom has been named the wild marcopolo sheep, in the 13th century, the chinese monk Fa Hien in the 4th century and the central Asian historian,Abu rehan Al-beruni in the 11th century.
Today, the karakoram highway conects Islamabad with kashgar via abbotabad,mansehra, thakot, besham, pattan, chilas, gilgit and hunza across the 4733m high khunjerab pass the highway, built by the Pakistani and Chinese enginers,has been described a marvel of civil engineering and even as "The Eighth wonder of the world