Baltit Fort

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. Ultar Peak towers behind it, and the view across the valley reaches toward Spantik and other summits of one of the highest ranges on earth. Few historic buildings anywhere sit in a landscape of such scale.

For centuries this was the seat of the Mirs of Hunza. Investigations made during its conservation suggest that its oldest parts, a defensive stone-and-timber tower among them, go back as far as the eighth century, while much of the present form dates from later rebuilding. Tradition links a major phase to the sixteenth century, when Mir Ayasho II married Shah Khatun, a princess from Skardu in Baltistan; her father is said to have sent Balti craftsmen to remodel the fort as part of her dowry, along with a cannon dated 1539. The architecture shows clear Tibetan influence: thick walls of stone laced with horizontal timber beams — small courtyards and rooftop terraces from which the ruler could survey his valley.

In 1945 the Mir moved to a new palace lower down, and the empty fort began to decay. A restoration led by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture through its Historic Cities programme, following an assessment by the Royal Geographical Society, was completed in 1996, and the fort became a museum run by the Baltit Heritage Trust. Inside, visitors pass through low doorways and steep ladders into the old reception rooms, the kitchen, the royal quarters and the lookout terraces — though for many visitors the real highlight is the view from the roof terraces over the whole Hunza Valley. The fort was later honoured with Time Asia's Best of Asia award in 2005. The site has been on Pakistan's tentative list for World Heritage since 2004.

Getting there

The fort is about a kilometre's walk uphill from the centre of Karimabad. Gilgit Airport (GIL) is about 54 km away in a straight line; by road Karimabad is roughly 100 km north of Gilgit along the Karakoram Highway, a drive of around two and a half hours.