Karakoram Highway

The Karakoram Highway (KKH) runs 1,300 km from Abbottabad in Pakistan to Kashgar in China, passing through some of the most dramatic mountain scenery on earth. From Gilgit the highway heads north through the Hunza Valley, past the flanks of Rakaposhi and Ultar Sar, to the Chinese border at the Khunjerab Pass — at 4,693 metres, one of the world's highest paved international border crossings.

The drive north from Gilgit to Hunza takes two to three hours on good days, longer if road damage or rockfalls intervene. Sections of the highway are regularly blocked by slides and floods, and conditions should always be checked locally before departure. Despite this, the journey is worth the uncertainty — the canyon sections above the Hunza River, with 7,000-metre peaks visible from the road, are among the most extraordinary drives anywhere.

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A story
The Karakoram Highway took 20 years and thousands of lives to build. Pakistan and China jointly constructed it between 1959 and 1979, blasting a road through rock faces above the Indus and Hunza rivers. Around 900 Pakistani workers and 200 Chinese workers died during construction — many in rockfalls and explosions. The highway follows a route that caravans used for more than 2,000 years and is still referred to as the modern Silk Road.