The Most Beautiful Places in Gilgit-Baltistan
9 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Gilgit-Baltistan are Nanga Parbat, Baltoro Glacier and K2. The list covers 9 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Gilgit-Baltistan is where the Karakoram, the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush meet, and that collision has produced the densest cluster of giant peaks and glaciers on Earth. Five of the world's fourteen mountains above 8,000 metres stand here, and outside the polar regions few places hold longer valley glaciers. Between the ranges, irrigated villages, apricot orchards and old forts line valleys such as Hunza, linked today by the Karakoram Highway.
K2, the second-highest mountain in the world, rises at the head of the Baltoro Glacier, a river of ice flanked by granite spires. Among them, the Trango Towers have some of the tallest rock walls anywhere, while Laila Peak is known for its clean spear-like profile. At the far western end of the Himalaya, Nanga Parbat lifts its Rupal Face thousands of metres above the valley floor.
The Hunza valley brings the mountains closer to the road. Rakaposhi rises directly above its villages, the jagged Passu Cones line the upper valley, and Attabad Lake, formed when a landslide blocked the Hunza River in 2010, now fills the gorge with turquoise water. Baltit Fort, the old seat of the rulers of Hunza, stands above Karimabad with the peaks behind it.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nanga Parbat | Summit | |
| 2 | Baltoro Glacier | Glacier | |
| 3 | K2 | Mountain | |
| 4 | Rakaposhi | Mountain | |
| 5 | Trango Towers | Cliff | |
| 6 | Laila Peak | Summit | |
| 7 | Attabad Lake | Lake | |
| 8 | Baltit Fort | Fort | |
| 9 | Tupopdan (Passu Cones) | Summit |
01 Nanga Parbat
Pakistan35.239° N 74.590° E
Image by Makalu from Pixabay Nanga Parbat, 8,126 m, is the ninth-highest mountain in the world and the western cornerstone of the Himalaya, rising just south of the great bend of the Indus in Gilgit-Baltistan, in the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir. Few mountains stand so far above their surroundings.
Did you know? In June 1937 an avalanche buried Camp IV below Rakhiot Peak, killing seven German climbers and nine Sherpas, almost the entire expedition.
02 Baltoro Glacier
Pakistan35.736° N 76.381° E
Guilhem Vellut from Paris · CC BY-SA 2.0 The Baltoro is the great highway of ice into the heart of the Karakoram. About 63 kilometres long and draining a basin of some 1,500 square kilometres in Gilgit-Baltistan, it is one of the longest glaciers outside the polar regions, a broad, rubble-covered river of ice set in a trough with walls scored by the ice.
Did you know? The glacier is remarkably gentle, with an average gradient of just 3.9 percent; south of Concordia it falls only 21 metres over two kilometres.
03 K2
Pakistan35.881° N 76.513° E
Zacharie Grossen · CC BY-SA 4.0 K2 is 8,611 metres high, second only to Everest, and it sits deep in the Karakoram on the line between Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and the China-administered Trans-Karakoram Tract of Xinjiang. Its name is a survey label that stuck.
Did you know? Polish climber Wanda Rutkiewicz became the first woman to stand on the summit, on 23 June 1986.
04 Rakaposhi
Pakistan · 30.3 km from Gilgit36.142° N 74.489° E
Image by u_7scunebe3w from Pixabay Few mountains present themselves as completely as Rakaposhi.
Did you know? After the first ascent more than twenty years passed before another team reached the top, in 1979.
05 Trango Towers
Pakistan35.757° N 76.201° E
mtzendo · CC BY-SA 4.0 The Trango Towers are a row of granite blades on a ridge above the Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram, and for anyone walking towards K2 they are the first sight that seems to belong to another scale of mountain. The ridge runs north-west to south-east between the Trango and Dunge glaciers.
Did you know? The Norwegian line on Great Trango's east face was not repeated until 2008, when four Norwegians spent 27 days on the wall to reach the top.
06 Laila Peak
Pakistan35.592° N 76.410° E
Maqsood aktar · CC BY-SA 4.0 Laila Peak rises from the Gondogoro Glacier at the head of the Hushe Valley in the Karakoram, and its shape alone makes it famous: a slender spear of rock and ice, one of the most elegant mountains in a range full of giants.
Did you know? The 1987 team came down not by their route of ascent but by abseiling down the peak's east face.
07 Attabad Lake
Pakistan36.337° N 74.868° E
Sherazyousafzai2018 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Attabad Lake is a young lake born of catastrophe. On 4 January 2010 a massive landslide came down at the village of Attabad in the Hunza Valley of northern Pakistan, killing twenty people and damming the Hunza River completely.
Did you know? About 40 percent of the village of Gulmit was submerged, along with large parts of Hussaini and Ghulkin.
08 Baltit Fort
Pakistan36.326° N 74.670° E
Jamalhunzokuz · CC BY-SA 4.0 Baltit Fort rises above Karimabad in the Hunza Valley like a wooden-and-stone ship moored on a ridge, its whitewashed upper storeys and carved timber balconies set against the great snow walls of the Karakoram.
Did you know? The Balti craftsmen who remodelled the fort were sent by Abdal Khan of Skardu, father of the bride Shah Khatun.
09 Tupopdan (Passu Cones)
Tupopdan
Pakistan36.556° N 74.934° E
Sultanalipassu · CC BY-SA 3.0 Tupopdan, better known to travellers as the Passu Cones or Passu Cathedral, is a row of sharp limestone spires that rises above the Hunza valley in northern Pakistan like a set of organ pipes or a Gothic façade.
Did you know? Deep snow forced the team to give up its first approach from a snow cave on a col at 5,180 metres and try again from a neighbouring valley.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Gilgit-Baltistan?
- On our list, Nanga Parbat ranks first, followed by Baltoro Glacier and K2.
- Which 8,000-metre peaks are in Pakistan?
- Pakistan has five: K2, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum II. All of them are in Gilgit-Baltistan.
- How was Attabad Lake formed?
- A large landslide in January 2010 blocked the Hunza River at Attabad, and the water backed up to form the lake. It submerged part of the Karakoram Highway, which was later rerouted through tunnels.
- Why is Nanga Parbat called the Killer Mountain?
- Nanga Parbat earned the nickname because of the many climbers who died on it, especially during early expeditions before its first ascent in 1953.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Gilgit-Baltistan?
- In our collection, the places in Gilgit-Baltistan are most often summits (3), mountains (3), cliffs (1) and glaciers (1).
- How many places are on this list in Gilgit-Baltistan?
- The list covers 9 places.