Hunza Valley
Hunza District, Gilgit Baltistan Former Princely State Of The Mirs Of Hunza, Dissolved 1974; Baltit And Altit Forts Restored By The Aga Khan Trust For Culture · Karimabad, Gilgit-Baltistan
Hunza is a high valley on the Karakoram Highway, ringed by peaks above 7,000 metres - Rakaposhi, Ultar Sar, Diran and the rock needle called Ladyfinger - with terraced apricot orchards and poplars stepping down to a grey glacial river. It is what most travellers mean when they say they are going to northern Pakistan. The centre is Karimabad, a steep village under Baltit Fort, the old seat of the Mirs of Hunza, restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and now a museum; Altit Fort, the older of the two, stands on a cliff a short walk away. Upstream the valley changes: Attabad Lake, an unreal turquoise, exists only because a landslide dammed the river in 2010, drowning villages and a stretch of the highway. Beyond it are the Passu Cones and the Hussaini suspension bridge. Most people here are Ismaili Muslims, literacy is high, and women run shops and guesthouses. Apricot blossom comes in early April and autumn colour in late October, and both weeks fill every hotel.
Karimabad, Hunza District, Karakoram Highway (N-35), Karimabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
Hunza is a valley, not a site: no gate and no closing time. Baltit Fort and Altit Fort each open daily in daylight hours, are visited on a short guided tour included in a separate ticket, and close earlier in winter. Flights from Islamabad to Gilgit are short but weather dependent and cancelled often; Gilgit to Karimabad is then about two to three hours by road. By road the whole way, the Karakoram Highway from Islamabad takes the better part of two days; the faster route over the Babusar Pass is open in summer only. Many guesthouses thin out or close from December to February.